Two's a Crowd: The Blood Stone
by The Writing Therapist
Summary: Harry's double life gets even more complicated, and a hell of a lot more interesting, when he has to start attending Hogwarts. Will he drive everyone else insane or will the school make HIM sane? Follow up to Two's a Crowd: The Beginning
1. The Letter

A small figure ran across the rooftops of Gotham city, a similar sized form quickly following after it. The first form jumped over the gap between buildings, leaning forward slightly when it landed to keep its balance, and continued to run. The second figure kept close to the first, mirroring its movements over the gap. The two passed near several streetlamps, illuminating their forms: the first figure wore a purple straitjacket with black straps over a black jumpsuit, a pair of goggles over the eyes and a dark green mask covered the mouth and nose; a curious trait was that this person had vibrant, green hair.

The second person wore red vest with green shirtsleeves, an 'R' on the left side, along with green boots, gloves, and shorts, and with a short yellow cape; the person wore a black domino mask on their face, the eyes narrowed in concentration.

The first person flipped over another gap and tossed something at the other; the second person dodged to the side, avoiding the playing card shaped projectile, before throwing something as well. The first person also dodged the thrown object, shaped like a bird, before perching on the edge of the building, he tilted his head slightly in amusement before speaking, his voice slightly muffled by his mask, "As much fun as this is, Robin, I have plans in the morning, so I'll have to cut this short."

"I don't think so, Prank," Robin responded, charging forward across the rooftop.

Prank cackled as the two traded blows and dodges before his ears picked up a sound, 'Music? Not that I'm complaining, but it's perfect to make an escape!' Prank dodged another punch and, after giving a quick mock salute, flipped off the building.

Robin made the edge in time to see Prank slip into another building where he saw flashes of multicolored lights, 'You got to be kidding me…' He jumped off the building and slipped through an open window that Prank had apparently gone through, wincing at the loud music he was blasted with, 'Just my luck, there's a rave right next to us. I'll never be able to find him in this!'

From deep within the crowd of people, Prank looked up to where Robin was perched, a wide grin underneath his facemask. "See you around, Birdie," he murmured as he turned and slipped through the swarm of people who did not glance at him twice, this was Gotham and it was also a rave, as long as you were wearing _something_, not one would bother you. Prank glanced around the crowd, to see if there was anyone he knew hanging around here; he was not completely surprised to see a group wearing clown makeup dancing a few feet away from him, "Note to self, try and convince mum and dad to have a rave for my birthday…no drugs, of course."

—**HJH—**

Minerva McGonagall, made her way to the office of Albus Dumbledore, "Albus, you told me to come to you when I was to about to send out this years letters; is there a reason?"

"Yes, Minerva," Dumbledore responded, "It'd be best if someone personally delivered a particular letter because while the recipient had magical parents, they have lived in muggle world all their life."

"Who are you referring to, Albus?" McGonagall asked.

"Harry Potter," Dumbledore responded.

"…you're joking; I will not be going to Gotham!" McGonagall argued.

-Five minutes later-

McGonagall sighed; looking at the greenhouse before kicking aside the Portkey Dumbledore had put in her hands. She inwardly cursed Dumbledore and raised a hand to knock, 'Well, this is as good a place as any to start looking…I'm going to throw away his entire supply of lemon drops when I get back!'

The door opened to reveal a woman who, were it not for the modest covering of foliage, would be naked, "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Harry Potter," McGonagall responded and quickly added, "I will not kidnap him, I assure you."

"…you try anything to hurt him, I'll track you down and feed you to my plants," Ivy threatened.

—**HJH—**

Prank slipped quietly into an abandoned warehouse, far away from where the impromptu party was being held. He looked around cautiously before being suddenly bowled over; he flailed his arms in surprise, before attempting to push off the hyena that was on top of him, "Jin, down, get off!"

"He's excited to see you, hun," Harley remarked, pulling the excited creature off, "and turn your hair back, I like it better that way."

"Sure thing, mum," Prank responded, as his hair changed from green to black.

"That's better, Harry," Harley smiled, giving him a brief hug not remarking on the sudden color change, she had seen it often enough that it was normal, "How was your night?"

"Just the usual: I wandered around the city, ran into Birdboy, and lost him by ducking through a rave," Harry recounted.

"What did I tell you about those?" Harley said.

"I didn't take anything from anyone, mum," Harry cut off, "…can I have a rave for my birthday, no drugs allowed?"

"Let's ask puddin' I think he had something else planned today," Harley answered.

Apparently Joker did have something planned; he had set up for weeks a special present for Harry: a building to be blown up cued to tune of 'Happy Birthday' along with a massive display of fireworks. The 'party' itself was spectacular, a swarm of Jokerz had shown up to celebrate, were thrilled at the explosion, and had fun when Harry decided that the cake was better to throw than eat.

Several blocks away, McGonagall had felt and seen the explosion, 'I just hope Harry wasn't anywhere near that.' After a chat with Poison Ivy, and a few cups of herbal tea, she had been sent to seek more information at the residence of someone called the Riddler. A little while earlier, she had seen a man apparently suddenly freezing objects as he fled from a long black vehicle and as the two had passed, she quickly came to the conclusion that the city was completely and utterly mad. As she made her way to where the Riddler resided, she ran into a woman dressed in a skintight outfit, "…would it be presumptuous to ask if you know a Harry Potter?"

"How do you know the kitten?" Catwoman answered.

—HJH—

"Hey, Ze'ev, my letter should be arriving soon, right?" Harry asked, holding Jin in his arms as Harley drove insanely to avoid the police that had shown up.

"I believe so," Remus answered, idly compensating his posture whenever Harley made a sharp turn to make sure he did not fall over, "Should be arriving any day now."

"Just don't bite my ears or face," Harry commented as Jin tried to groom his hair, or at least eat the small pieces of cake still stuck in it.

"I'm still amazed that he actually understands you," Remus stated, watching as Jin licked the edge of Harry's hairline and nibbled at the hair, "Why do you let him do that?"

"Because he wants to," Harry responded, "It feels kind of nice, you should try it sometime."

"I'll stick to a brush and comb, thank you very much," Remus said with a grin.

"Your loss," Harry replied, giggling as Jin licked his ears, "Cut that out, it tickles!"

Remus noted that Jin seemed to truly understand the words Harry was saying instead of the general message most animals would get, 'Maybe the two of them have become bonded? I have to check later.'

After causing some more mayhem during their escape, Harry, Harley, Joker, and Remus walked into the hideout to find someone knocked out and tied to a chair.

"…what'd we miss?" Harry commented with a laugh.

"Oh no…" Remus groaned, seeing who the person was.

"You know them?" Joker asked, coming around to get a better look.

"She's a teacher at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall," Remus answered, "Harry, you need to change into some normal looking clothes, it wouldn't be good if she reported back that you're involved in crimes."

"Roger!" Harry did a mock salute before running off to his room to change.

"Do I need to change?" Harley asked.

"No, she knows what you look like, it's a bit of a tricky thing to explain, I'll do so later," Remus answered.

"Your disguise looks fine, you can just pretend to be one of our henchmen," Harry remarked to Remus as he ran back into the room, finishing pulling on a plain red colored shirt and adjusting his glasses.

"McGonagall is no fool, but let's hope for the best," Remus answered, adjusting his wolf mask before grabbing Joker, "She can't see you."

"Why not?" Joker asked, pouting slightly.

"She only knows that Harry lives with Harley, and that he knows you. If she reports that Harry lives with you and considers you his father, he'll be taken away," Remus explained as he dragged off Joker into the shadows, watching as Harley and Harry carefully got the other henchmen to wake up McGonagall, and also keeping an eye on Joker to make sure he did not do anything stupid. The moments that happened after McGonagall was untied then woken up is a bit of a blur, but it culminated with the henchmen who had tied her up in the first place being reprimanded.

"Who might you be?" Harley asked, smiling at the scene of two full grown men being completely cowed.

McGonagall looked up and saw the figures of Harry and Harley staring at her, amused. She straitened her robes and introduced herself, "I am Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Head Mistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in addition to being the Transfiguration teacher there."

"Okay, why're you here then?" Harry asked, he had decided to make himself comfortable and crouched on his favorite chair._ "You are very relaxed about this." _'I'm actually nervous as heck, but can you blame me?'

"I was sent to deliver a letter; it is customary for a muggle student to have their letter be delivered by a magical representative in person," McGonagall answered.

"Why didn't you just mail it?" Harley asked, taking a seat and motioning for the teacher to take one also.

"Because most likely the letter would have arrived late, due to the owl taking having to cross the ocean," McGonagall responded.

"Owls, you use owls to deliver letters? Uncle Pengy would just love that…but in all honesty, that's just kind of dumb," Harry spoke, an odd smile crossing his face.

McGonagall was a little unnerved at how Harry seemed to be much wiser than his age and how he seemed to be both staring at her and _through_ her.

"So, where's this letter you were delivering?" Harry asked, idly adjusting his glasses.

McGonagall handed over the letter, watching as Harry broke the wax seal on the envelope and quickly scanned the writing, before promptly folding it up, "Will you be attending Hogwarts or going to an American school?"

"If everyone there doesn't mind someone who's slightly insane," Harry grinned.

McGonagall gave a small smirk, "If the school can survive the Weasley twins, I think we'll be fine."

"Who're they?" Harry asked, genuinely curious.

"A pair of twins that have taken it upon themselves to try and live up to the reputations of a previous group of pranksters," McGonagall sighed, "If they put the same amount of dedication into their schoolwork as they do with their pranks, they would be at the top of their classes."

"Sounds like a lot of fun," Harry grinned widely, "With those two around, they'll make me feel less homesick since they can remind me of Uncle Joker."

"You see him as your uncle?" McGonagall asked, she had thought Joker was a bigger influence in Harry's life.

"Yeah…he's a bit odd though, but I don't see him a lot because he's either busy causing chaos or is locked up," Harry remarked, "When he's around, he treats me like a favorite pet, it's annoying but it doesn't happen often."

Inwardly McGonagall sighed, glad that Joker, who sounded like an evil piece of work, was not that a frequent participant in Harry's upbringing.

Meanwhile, Remus was surprised that McGonagall had bought the lie, 'Harry's getting very good at making lies seems like truths.'

Joker was fuming silently, 'I can't believe he demoted me to being a weird uncle!"

"How's the school year lain out? When are breaks for holidays or vacation?" Harley asked, getting the conversation back on track.

"School starts in September and ends in June," McGonagall informed, "There's a three week break for Christmas and New Years along with a week for Easter."

"What about Jin?" Harry inquired; the animal in question lifted its head up, sensing that it was being mentioned in the current conversation.

"I don't think he'd be allowed, the only pets you are allowed take are a cat, owl, or a toad," McGonagall responded.

"I sort of understand having a cat or a toad, you can carry them around, but the owl wouldn't be useful to me since everyone I know lives here and with an owl it'd take forever to send messages…and it's not good that I can't take Jin with me," Harry remarked and elaborated when he saw McGonagall's look, "I've had Jin since he was a cub, he was a gift from Uncle Joker; we're inseparable, and sometimes it seems like he can read my mind and understand what I'm saying…"

"…there might be an exception if he's your bonded familiar," McGonagall responded.

"How can we tell?" Harry asked with a glint of hope in his eyes.

"You have already described a few traits, a bonded familiar usually has a connection to its owner and can understand when they speak, they also have a mental connection too, allow them to know the other's thoughts," McGonagall explained, "there is a good chance he is bonded to you and, if that is the case, most likely you would be able to bring him since separating a person from their bonded familiar for an extended period of time and distance, hurts both of them because of the connection."

Remus smiled to himself at hearing the information, 'I knew it; they are bonded.'

"Then Jin can come with me?" Harry responded, grinning and nearly jumping out of his seat.

"Maybe," McGonagall responded, slightly amused at his antics, "Now, the matter of getting your school supplies."

"I'll do that," Remus interrupted, making sure to disguise his voice.

"Who might you be?" McGonagall asked, suspicious.

"A Squib; I joined up a while ago, after my family kicked me out, and when I realized who Harry was, I taught him a few basic things about the magical world," Remus lied, "I can take Harry to get his things."

"You will have to set up a Portkey to Diagon Alley, to do so," McGonagall responded before handing Harry an envelope, "Your letter also contains your supply list as well as what books you will need for the upcoming year, you don't have to send your reply by owl since you have told me verbally that you will attend, I will see you September fist, Mr. Potter."

"I'll show you out," Remus offered.

"I have a suggestion as to keeping better communication with Mr. Potter while he is at Hogwarts," McGonagall spoke.

"What would that be?" Remus responded.

"Look into purchasing or renting a wizarding home, so you will be connected to the Floo Network; Mr. Potter would be able to send home letters much easier that way," McGonagall informed.

"I'll run it by them, see what they say," Remus replied.

"Very well then…your outfit is interesting," McGonagall commented, "I take it you're a fan of wolves?"

"They're fascinating creatures," Remus answered, sweating nervously inside his costume.

"…I once had a student who was a werewolf, he was quite timid at first before he meet Harry's father and made some friends, but he disappeared a while ago and no one knows where he went," McGonagall replied, "But it shouldn't mean a thing to you, you wouldn't have known him; have a good day."

Remus twitched as he watched McGonagall walked off, 'She knew who I really was!'

Harry noted that something seemed off about Remus when he came back in, "What's wrong?"

"I think she knew who I really was," Remus murmured, collapsing into a chair.

"Did she actually say that?" Joker asked, taking an odd delight in seeing Remus stressed out.

"No, but she implied it," Remus answered.  
"Maybe she'll keep your secret," Harley reasoned.

"Maybe…" Remus sighed.

"Why'd you say I was your uncle?" Joker asked.

"I don't think that it'd be a good idea if wizards knew that you're my dad," Harry answered, "I'm not ashamed of to admit it, but I want to be careful…I may sound paranoid but it's better than being taken away from you guys."

Harley immediately swept up Harry into a bruising hug, "No one's taking you away, hun."

"Mum, can't breathe!" Harry complained, attempting to pry her arms off.

Remus chuckled at the scene before speaking, "You didn't correct McGonagall when she said your last name was Potter instead of Quinzel."

"For good reason; most likely people are going to try and track down where I've been the last few years and if I give my last name as Quinzel and if people are smart enough to look through the muggle side, I'll be taken away from your guys and I'd rather be forced to conform than have that happen," Harry reasoned, "I just have to remember not to correct people…oy, this is going to be crazy."

"I thought you were already crazy," Remus remarked with a small laugh, to which Harry retaliated by pouncing on him.

—**HJH—**

"How did it go?" Dumbledore asked; he had called a meeting with the staff when the Transfiguration teacher had returned.

"As well as could be expected, other than a few hitches along the way," McGonagall answered, glaring daggers, "After meeting and speaking to Poison Ivy first, she sent me to meet an interesting man who called himself Riddler, while on the way to him I ran into a woman calling herself Catwoman, who was interesting in her own right, and after leaving her and meeting Riddler I was then told to go to a man named Two-Face on where Harry's whereabouts were.

I spent nearly an hour conversing with Two-Face because he kept flipping a coin whenever I asked him a question to decide whether to answer it or not. It seems to me that while these 'villains' are quite odd, they are actually quite pleasant and wish no ill will to come to Harry.

Pomona, you would get along quite well with Poison Ivy; her plants are quite amazing feat for a muggle, some of which could rival magical plants.

Filius, Riddler was an interesting person, if he created the password riddles for your house, not even your seventh years would be able to get in.

After the runaround, eventually I did find Harry Potter, and he seems to be doing quite well."

"Thank you, Minerva," Dumbledore spoke before ending the meeting. When the other teachers had left, he pulled McGonagall aside, "Was there anything else you found out?"

McGonagall glared at Dumbledore before speaking, "I inquired about the Joker and what his ties to Harry are; apparently he seems to be not too far off from being an extremely eccentric uncle and contact between the two is minimal since Joker seems preoccupied with attempting to combat an entity named Batman or is either locked up…if only temporarily from what I've heard."

"Thank you for finding that out," Dumbledore responded.

"There was one more matter that needs attention," McGonagall spoke, "Mr. Potter seems to have a bonded familiar…"

"What sort of animal was it?" Dumbledore asked.

"A hyena, a gift from Joker apparently," McGonagall answered, "Potter described several traits indicating that the two have a bond: the animal, Jin it's called, understands when Potter speaks and from what I've been told, it might also have a slight telepathic link."

"I believe there is a special exception to the school pets rule in regard to familiars that are bonded, I believe that it would be in the best interests of everyone to allow the pet to attend," Dumbledore responded.

McGonagall nodded before making to leave the room, turning around when she got to the door and speaking, "I'll get you back for sending me to that insane city without a decent warning."

—**HJH—**

Harry stared up at the sky from his seated position on the swing as he heard someone call out his name, he looked down and saw Dick approaching him, and he greeted his friend with a smile, "Hey Ritchie."

"You don't seem like your cheery self, what's wrong," Dick asked, taking the seat beside him, he was wondering why Harry had told him to meet up during the middle of the week instead of on Saturday as they usually did.

Harry slowly starting to swing before answering, "…I'm going away for a while, I don't think I'll be back until Christmas,"

"Where're you going?" Dick inquired.

"This special school overseas…my birth parents had it set up that I would go there when I was the right age, so I'm going," Harry responded.

"How do you know about it then?" Dick asked, starting to swing also.

"Uncle Remus told me…he went there too, he says it's nice," Harry answered, "The school grounds are huge and I think there aren't any seriously dangerous chemicals around."

Dick laughed at the reminder of what Harry had done a few months ago, "They just finished fixing that mess you know."

Harry smiled, "I'll try and write as much as I can while I'm gone."

"Why don't you just call?" Dick asked.

"…the school is in Britain, the phone bill would be huge!" Harry responded with a laugh, "But in all honesty, I'm going to miss hanging out with you."

"Same here, you're one of the few people I've meet that cares to only know me for me and not who my guardian is," Dick smiled, he was surprised when Harry suddenly held out his hand, pinky sticking out.

"Let's make a promise," Harry spoke, "We'll always be friends."

Dick wrapped his pinky around Harry's, "Of course; not matte what happens, we'll stay friends forever."


	2. Making Plans

AN: Happy Holidays!

Joker: You mean Merry Christmas.

I want to be politically correct.

Joker: Screw that! It's Merry Christmas and if you or your readers don't like it, I've got an RPG with your names on it!

Harry: ...and here I thought it was going to be an interesting day.

-clears throat- Now on to a different matter, Two's a Crowd: The Beginning has been nominated in the Quibbler Awards for Best AU and Best Crossover. Sweet! Thank you to whoever nominated me and I won't beg you guys to vote for me...but if you want to, you can do so at: quibbler (dot) this-paradise (dot) com :P

* * *

Harry grinned widely to himself as his mind raced about all of the things he would do at Hogwarts, especially the mayhem and anarchy he would cause. He grabbed his extra packs of playing cards, both the weapons and the playable kind, and placed them into his recently bought trunk; he and Remus had gone to the local wizarding area, called Visigoth Ave and was hidden in the abandoned tunnels of the precursor to the modern subways, and bought some of his supplies, mainly his trunk and robes along with a few books that had caught Harry's eye; Remus had remarked on the way back that it very different that Diagon Alley was. It was decided that it would be better to purchase the school books and potions supplies in Diagon Alley since they were more suited to the Hogwarts curriculum.

Harry hummed a tune as he packed up his clothes along with some other random things when something fell out of one of the pockets of a 'normal' coat he had. He picked up the object and saw it looked like a radish, and remembered where it came from. 'I was wondering where this went.' _"You stopped looking for it last month." _'Good think I did or I would've never found it.' He quickly clipped on the odd accessory and continued packing his things, planning what his first act of chaos would be when he arrived at Hogwarts when he realized that his attending there would mean he would not be able to commit crimes in Gotham anymore and that his sudden disappearance would cause a lot of suspicion. _"You just __**now**__ realized that?" _'Can it!' Harry sighed loudly, 'I need to think…how can I be in two places at once?' _"You cannot…unless you have a clone or something similar like that."_ 'I don't, but I think I know someone who might have something close enough!'

—**HJH—**

Harry slipped into Ivy's greenhouse, snagging an apple as he slid down a tree trunk, "Aunt Ivy, you in here?"

"What do you need, sapling?" Ivy responded, smiling at the young villain as he landed on the ground near her.

"Can you still make those plant people?" Harry asked.

"Why do you ask?" Ivy answered, curious.

"I'm going to this magical school overseas and it might suspicious if I just suddenly disappeared," Harry explained, "I need a copy of myself to run around with mum and dad so it'll all seem normal…it just has to be Prank-me not me-me, okay?"

"I think I can scrounge something up," Ivy replied, with a smile.

"Great," Harry grinned widely, "by the way, you think we could give it some of my personality and Prank's? That way it'll seem just like the real thing."

"I can see what I can do, if you don't mind taking a nap in one of the plant pods for a while," Ivy explained.

Harry shrugged, "Sure, it's like sleeping on a water bed…except you're inside it instead of on it…does that even make sense?"

"I think you're taking on more of Joker's thought processes," Ivy replied blankly.

"…you're not happy about that are you?"

It took a while because several attempts resulted in the clone looking like a shrunken version of the Jolly Green Giant, but the task was finally accomplished.

Harry gave a low whistle as he gazed at a copy of himself, "Great job Aunt Ivy; it's like looking into a mirror!"

"But if your hair is any indication, you have **never** looked into one," Prank remarked with a smirk before looking down at himself, "Do either of you have something I could wear? It's warm in here, but I feel uncomfortable."

Harry laughed before tossing Prank a bag, "Good thing I remembered to bring some extra clothes."

"Thank you for using your brain for once," Prank deadpanned.

"He insults like me too!" Harry boasted.

"I am your clone with your memories and part of your personality, it is not like I am an imitator," Prank groused, pulling on his pants.

"You have to work on how you talk, you sound too…" Harry scanned his mind for the right description.

"Formal?" Prank suggested, slipping on the extra straitjacket and starting to do up the fastenings.

"Actually, I was about to say: too much like you have a stick up your butt," Harry laughed at seeing the look at Prank's face before he was unceremoniously shoved into a bush.

—**HJH—**

"Did you have to push me?" Harry asked Prank as the two of them made their way back to the hideout that they inhabited that week.

"I have more of your personality than my own; would you tolerate someone making fun of you?" Prank answered.

"No…but still did you have to push me into a rose bush? I think I still have some thorns stuck in my rear!" Harry retorted.

"Your own fault for standing in front of it, then," Prank remarked a hint of amusement in his voice.

Harry gave a low growl of annoyance when something hit him; he had not told anyone else about his plans which meant he could have a little fun with it, "You want to play a joke on mum?"

"What do you have in mind?" Prank responded.

"You'll see," Harry retorted as he slipped into the hideout, Prank following close behind. He found Harley sitting in the makeshift kitchen, reading a cookbook and apparently trying to learn how to not burn water at least. He pulled Prank away from the kitchen, "Okay, you stay here and I'll go out and start chatting with mum. Keep watching carefully and when mum turns around, I'll hide then you come out, got it?"

"Why are we doing this again?" Prank asked.

"Why not?" Harry responded, walking into the kitchen and greeting Harley. The two of them chatted for a few minutes before Harley turned away to get another book, giving Harry the opportunity to quickly hide and for Prank to come out; he grinned from his hiding place as he vaguely saw Prank appear on the other side of the room from where he had been standing, confusing Harley as to how 'he' got over there so fast.

Harry and Prank kept up the joke for almost fifteen minutes before deciding to wind it down. "You sneak off and talk to dad for a while then come back in here…I think mum's starting to go crazier from our trick," Harry whispered to Prank, both of them trying to not burst out into laughter.

Prank grinned widely and, after making sure Harley was not paying attention, sneaked off to Joker's planning room until it was the right time.

Harry sat in the chair that had been vacated when Prank was out of sight, "You okay, mum? You don't look so good."

"You've been driving me a bit nuts, that's the explanation," Harley responded.

"…I do that everyday," Harry remarked with a wide grin.

"More than usual today!" Harley retorted, "Especially that appearing on one side of the room than the other, did you learn some transporting trick?"

"I'm taking a break using magic for a while, except for my hair," Harry responded.

"Hey Harley, did you order anything to eat? Me and Harry are hungry!" Joker exclaimed, walking into the room with Prank in tow.

Harry let out a laugh as Harley looked between him and his plant counterpart, "Looks like we did a good job!"  
Prank nodded his head and gave a soft laugh, "It was amusing, I must admit."

"Why're there two of you?!" Harley exclaimed.

"You really couldn't tell the difference, could you?" Harry remarked.

"…is this how you were appearing all over the room?" Harley asked.

"Yep," Harry responded.

"You little…" Harley took in a deep breath before letting it out.

"You're taking it quite well," Remus remarked, walking into the room having heard what was going on.

"You look exactly like the kid," Joker stated.

"Aunt Ivy did really well on him," Harry smiled.

"He looks completely perfect," Harley spoke, checking over Prank to see if there was anything off, "Red outdid herself this time."

"Yes she did," Prank remarked; the full impact of the scenario had finally hit him, here he was, standing in his own body in the same room with the people that were special to his other self and be face-to-face with Harry and to talk to him out loud instead of through their thoughts, he did not really care that his body was not flesh and blood, it was just fine for his needs.

"He's physically like me, but we couldn't replicate any of the magic though," Harry remarked.

"Then how's his hair green?" Harley asked.

"Chlorophyll," Prank remarked, tugging on a lock, "From what I was told, it took a while to get me completely perfect; apparently there was a slight problem from trying to make me sturdy enough for any physical fights as well as just making my hair green and not my skin too."

"How'd you get the personality right, though?" Remus wondered.

"Aunt Ivy did something with my brain and, from what she said, just copied my memories and put them in the plant," Harry explained, "Now I can go to Hogwarts without anyone knowing a thing!"

"That's one problem taken care of," Joker remarked, poking Prank in the side.

Prank slapped away Joker's hand, "I may be a plant but I still feel that."

"He's perfect," Remus grinned, "There was one other thing that should be done before Harry and I go to Diagon Alley."

"What's that?" Harley asked.

"It would be easier for Harry to exchange letters if we owned, or at the least rented a wizard house," Remus explained, "It would be hooked up to the Floo Network."

"The what?" Harry and Prank responded at the same time, the two sharing a brief look.

"It's a way of communication using fireplaces; only wizarding homes are hooked up to it but muggle homes can be hooked up, only temporary though," Remus answered.

"You do that," Joker commented, "…I don' think me or Harley could do it, what with us being…"

"Muggles?" Remus offered.

"I was going to say wanted criminals, but that's good too," Joker grinned.

—**HJH—**

"It has four bedrooms and there's two bathrooms but if you want more you can contact someone to expand," the salesperson spoke, "There's a kitchen with several appliances already installed and a dining room next to it, there's also a library and a den."

Harry idly looked around the third property that he and Remus had seen so far, "Does it have a fireplace?"

"Several; one in each the den, library, and dining room," the salesperson answered.

"This seems like a good place, is there a yard?" Remus spoke, "The other places didn't have one and our pets would like some room to run around."

"There is; and if you don't mind my asking, what sort of pets are they?"

"Dogs, they're kind of big so they need a lot of room," Harry cut in, "Why'd the previous owners leave?"

"Um…they wanted a change of scenery."

Both Harry and Remus instantly knew that they had most likely left because of the insanity that was increasing in Gotham.

"Does it also have a place to do potions work?" Remus asked, remembering about Joker's constantly making his chemicals or just experimenting in general.

"Yes, in the basement."

"This place is perfect!" Harry announced with a grin.

It took a several days, a few secretive dealings, and one or two people quietly bribed to finalize the sale without anyone knowing that its residents would include a mass murdering clown, a former psychiatrist turned girlfriend of said killer clown, a magical child that people had been searching for years even that loved causing chaos, a werewolf that was friends of the blood parents of the child, and the 'pets' of the residents that consisted of four hyenas; to top it all off: all of them, save the hyenas but that is debatable, could be considered by most people to completely and utterly insane.


	3. Chapter 3

Posted: 1/11/09

A.N. Sorry about the delay in updates, guys, writer's block again. -sighs- But I got over it...sorta... :P  
After reading someone's review, I've gone back and redid some of the early chapters of The Beginning so that they should be a bit better. :) And to take off the edge of the infrequent updates of this story, I should be putting up some side stories/omakes/extras related to several incidents that were briefly mentioned but not elaborated on during the series so far or just a few things I couldn't really fit into the story at the time...it might end up leading into some rather weird things, but hey, this story is weird as is, so who cares?!

Joker: "I'm mad though..."  
-sigh- "What's wrong now?"  
Joker: "I'm not going to be in the story for a long time, you'll lose so many readers without my wit and personality!"  
-sweatdrops-  
Joker: "One more thing, vote for us on the Quibbler Awards or I'll skin you alive!"  
"JOKER!"

* * *

Harry had a rough landing coming out of the fireplace; he collided with a table and several plates that were on it crashed to the floor, he lay on the ground for a moment before groaning, "Okay, that sucked big time."

Remus, disguised underneath both spells and a few facial prosthetics, grinned as he helped Harry up, "It'll take some getting used to, I suppose."

"You could've told be about all the spinning, I thought I was going to puke!" Harry retorted, idly patting Jin on the head as he attempted to clean up his owner's face, "How'd Jin do? I wasn't really paying attention because I had my eyes closed and was blocking out the noise."

"Other than trying to chew my hand off, he did rather well," Remus answered, holding up a hand which sported several bite marks.

"Be glad he wasn't right out terrified, he'd have done some serious damage," Harry remarked.

"What do you mean?" Remus responded.

"A while back I got really bored, I think that was the week I got grounded after creating Jokerz without telling mum or dad, and I decided to see what Jin could bite through…he can easily bite though sticks, which made me wonder about Bud and Lou so I tried similar stuff with them…they could bite through bone!" Harry explained.

"Oh…wait, how do you know they bite through bone?" Remus responded, quickly making sure to keep his hands away from Jin's mouth.

"Um…I'd rather not say in public," Harry responded before adding, "and you don't have to worry, Jin can't bite through bone yet, he's still a baby."

"Wouldn't hurt to be cautious," Remus reasoned.

"Scaredy cat," Harry teased, smiling.

Remus gently cuffed Harry behind the head before cleaning him up with a quick spell, "Let's get going already."

"Alright, keep your pants on," Harry muttered as he followed Remus, clicking his tongue to catch Jin's attention and to get the animal to follow him.

"Hopefully I still remember how to get in," Remus joked as they exited the pub and entered a small dead-end alley; he pulled out his wand and tapped several bricks on the wall in front of him, causing the bricks to shift and move until an archway was in its place, framing the entrance to a crowded store lined street filled with people, "Welcome to Diagon Alley, Harry."

Harry let out a low whistle at the sight, "This place is seriously crowded compared to Visigoth Ave, is it because there's less space to hide it?"

"I believe so," Remus remarked, leading Harry into the crowd, "There aren't as many abandoned places in London as there are in Gotham, so it makes sense that there are more shops in one place."

"Makes sense…sort of," Harry responded, making sure Jin was next to him, "What's our first stop?"

"Gringotts," Remus answered, "We need to get check how your account is here before doing any shopping."

"…are you paying or am I?" Harry asked.

"We'll see," Remus commented as the two walked through the large doors.

"Whoa, and I thought the bank back home was excessive," Harry commented before noticing the bank tellers, "What're those?"

"Goblins, they protect any money that's stored here," Remus informed.

"Why weren't there any at the one back home?" Harry asked, grabbing a hold of Jin's collar to make sure the curious animal did not wander off.

"There wasn't as much money stored there compared to this place, I suppose," Remus answered, "So only humans are really needed."

"That's interesting," Harry commented as they walked up to a teller.

"We're here to withdraw some money," Remus spoke.

The goblin stared at Remus, glanced down at Harry before looking back to the man, "Do you have your key?"

"It's his vault," Remus corrected before sheepishly informing, "And complicated circumstances have put his key in the care of someone other than his guardian."

The goblin frowned deeply and stared at Harry, "What is his name?"

Remus looked around quickly before speaking in a low voice, "Harry Potter."

Harry felt instantly uncomfortable when the goblin stared at him with wide eyes, mainly when they focused on where his scar was hidden by his hair, "Mind not doing that, it's creepy."

"I will inform the Head Goblin so we can confirm your identity and issue you a new key, if you are who you say you are," the goblin stated before leaving them.

"I hate when someone does that," Harry muttered, making sure that his hair was still covering the scar.

"I'm surprised no one else has noticed yet," Remus remarked.

"Hopefully that'll keep up," Harry responded as the original goblin came back.

"If the two of you will follow me," the goblin spoke, leading them to a back office.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen, I am Ragnarok, the Head Goblin," he introduced, motioning for Harry and Remus to sit down and casting a critical eye over Harry.

"Mind not doing that?" Harry asked, fidgeting in his seat, "It makes me uncomfortable."

"…I apologize," Ragrarok responded, "You understand that we have to perform a few tests to make sure you're not faking who you are."

"Gringotts wouldn't be safe without precautions," Remus mused.

"So, how do we going to do this test?" Harry asked.

"We just need some of your blood on this parchment," Ragnarok informed.

"That's all?" Harry commented, idly cutting open his finger and letting a few drops of blood land on the parchment. He watched as the blood seeped into paper and red lines crept across the page, eventually the lines formed into words.

Ragnarok picked up the parchment and read off what was now written on it, "Harry Potter, son of James Potter and Lily Evans…that's strange…"

"What is?" Remus asked.

"There's something unusual with his blood," Ragnarok commented, "It's not consistent with Polyjuice or any disguising potions."

"That's normal," Harry informed, "I have this thing in my blood that counteracts most poisons…long story, don't ask."

Ragnarok stared at Harry for a moment before speaking, "I'll get someone to change the lock on your vault and make a key for you, incase the one who currently has it tries anything…although the odds of that happening are doubtful."

After Ragnarok left the room, Harry turned to Remus and asked, "What was he talking about someone else using my key?"

"No one steals anything from Gringotts unless you want to be in serious pain," Remus enlightened.

"I guess it'd be a bad idea to ever try a heist here," Harry remarked, with tone of false disappointment in his voice.

"Here is your key," Ragnarok spoke, entering the room with another goblin behind him. He handed the key to Harry before indicating the goblin next to him, "This is Griphook, he'll take you down to your vault."

"Cool…wait, what about Jin?" Harry remarked, glancing down at where the animal was idly chewing on one leg of the chair.

"It can't go down," Ragnarok informed.

"Stay here, Jin, and don't kill anything," Harry ordered to which the animal responded by giving him a bored look.

—**HJH—**

"That was great!" Harry exclaimed, falling out of the mining cart.

"Glad you enjoyed it," Remus groused.

"You need to ride roller coasters more, it's practically the same thing," Harry remarked, grinning ridiculously wide from the adrenaline still rushing though him, "Who knew that doing 'normal' business at a bank could be so much fun?!"

"Key please," Griphook spoke up.

Harry handed over the object and watched at the door to his vault opened up, jaw dropping when he saw what it contained.

"Pick up your jaw, Harry," Remus spoke, amused at astonished look on the boy's face.

"Holy Hermes! This all mine?!" Harry exclaimed.

"This is only your trust fund vault," Griphook informed, "You only have access to the money in this vault until you're of age, at which you would gain access to the Potter family vaults."

"Wow…how much would this be if it was exchanged to American Muggle money?" Harry asked.

Griphook inquired, "Just this vault or the total fortune?"

"Um, total?" Harry responded.

Griphook thought for a moment before answering, "Somewhere in the neighborhood of at least a billion American dollars, maybe two or three even."

"B-billion?" Harry spoke before passing out from a combination of shock and disbelief.

"…that's the first time, outside of sleeping or eating, that he's been so quiet," Remus mused.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: "Konichiwa!"  
Joker: "What's wrong with you?"  
"I have no idea!" -runs around-  
Joker: -sweatdrops-  
"One more thing, what Harry talks about near the beginning here is the connection he has with Prank back in Gotham, incase anyone was wondering."

Disclaimer: Most of the interaction in Ollivander's comes either directly from the book or has been modified to flow better with how the story goes.  
Harry Potter and all related characters, locations, and terms belong to J.K. and all Batman related characters, locations, and terms belong to DC Comics.

* * *

Harry blinked blankly before pushing off Jin, who was using him as a pillow, and turning to Remus, "Was I imagining a vault filled with gold coins?"

"No…and there were silver and bronze in there too," Remus answered, grinning.

"Very funny," Harry retorted sarcastically, before falling silent for a moment, "I had an odd dream just now."

"What was it about?" Remus asked, curious.

"I was back home with mum and dad and we were…_working_," Harry quickly changed was he was originally going to say when he saw that there was a goblin in the room, "It was like I was actually there and it wasn't a memory, we were doing something we've never done before, to my knowledge at least…remind me to talk to them when we get the chance."

"I will," Remus promised before handing Harry a bag, "I took the liberty of getting some money for you after you fainted."

"I didn't faint," Harry retorted, "But you've got to admit, that was a lot of money in that vault! If it wouldn't be so boring, me, mum, and dad would never have to _work_ again!"

"Like you just said, you'd all be bored," Remus laughed "We have other stuff to do, so let's go."

"Hey Ze'ev, what's Zonko's? I can't read the bottom of the sign," Harry pointed out as they left the building; a portion of the sign to the shop in question was obscured from his point of view.

Remus became very pale when he heard Harry mention the store name and quickly dragged him away from it, "Nothing for you to see, let's go get your books!"

"But I want to check it out!" Harry complained, checking again that Jin was close to him.

"Maybe later, if we have the time," Remus responded without thinking, mentally kicking himself for vaguely promising to take Harry to the joke shop. Harry in a normal joke shop was bad enough, but a magical one? Half of Diagon Alley would be destroyed in Harry's excitement!

"What's do we do now?" Harry asked.

"We need your school books, wand, and potions supplies," Remus answered.

"Boring stuff first, so let's get the books out of the way," Harry responded.

It took a short while to get the school books that Harry needed, along with a few others that caught Harry's eye.

"Now what?" Harry inquired, idly flipping through one of the books he had bought, _Faces for Every Occasion_, which happened to be about the known extent of Metamorphmagi abilities.

"Wand or potions ingredients, take your pick," Remus offered.

"Wand," Harry responded, putting the book away, "Lead the way."

—**HJH—**

"Ollivanders, where almost any witch or wizard that lives in this country buys their wand," Remus announced.

The two entered the shop which seemed completely empty, save for a chair which Remus sat in and Jin lay down next to; as they waited, Harry shook his head in agitation.

"What's wrong?" Remus inquired.

"Something about this place is giving me a bit of a headache," Harry responded, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"That sometimes happens to those who are sensitive to magic," a soft voice spoke. Harry jumped in surprise and his glasses slipped from his fingers.

"Crud…" Harry muttered as he heard a tinkling of glass, signaling that his eyeglasses had broken.

"Let me get that," Remus spoke, picking up the pieces and performing a quick repair before handing them back to Harry.

"…I love magic," Harry mused, slipping the repaired spectacles on, jumping back in surprise at the man who stood in front of him, "Uh…hello."

"I knew I'd be seeing you soon, Harry Potter. You have your mother's eyes, seems just yesterday that she was in here: ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice for charm work," Mr. Ollivander spoke, staring with pale colored eyes, "Your father favored a mahogany wand; eleven inches, pliable, a little more power and excellent for transfiguration."

"Will you stop staring at me like that, it's freaky even by my standards," Harry informed, glaring at Ollivander.

"Quite the temper you have there Mr. Potter," Ollivander spoke.

"I just don't like people staring at me," Harry retorted.

Mr. Ollivander gave a noncommittal sound before turning to Remus, "Remus Lupin, it's been some time since you've been here. Don't worry, I won't tell that you were in the company of Harry Potter…I remember your wand: twelve inches long and made of ash wood and dragon heartstring; strong, balanced, and hard to break…"

"Describes you pretty well," Harry mused.

"The wand chooses the wizard; more often than not, the wand's traits are similar if not identical to the owner's," Mr. Ollivander informed before turning to Harry, pulling out a measuring tape from his pocket, "Which is your wand arm?"

"Which hand do you use more?" Remus clarified when Harry glanced at him.

"I use both a lot, but I use my right more…is that a problem?" Harry answered, as he was getting measured.

"It's a tad odd for wizards to be able to wield a wand with both hands, but it's not completely rare," Mr. Ollivander informed as he continued his measurements.

"How long does this whole thing usually take?" Harry asked, surprised when Mr. Ollivander walked away for a moment and the tape measurer kept going.

"It all depends on the wand, sometimes there's a match on the first try, sometimes it takes hours," he spoke, taking down a few boxes from the massive stacks of them behind the counter.

"Didn't know that wands had a mind of their own…um…can you make this thing stop already?" Harry inquired; the tape measurer was currently measuring in-between his nostrils.

Ollivander pulled the tape measure away as he handed Harry a wand, "Beech wood and dragon heartstring, nine inches, nice and flexible. Give it a quick wave."

Harry gave a noncommittal shrug before raising the wand barely an inch before it was snatched away.

"Maple and phoenix feather, seven inches, quite whippy; give it a try—"

Harry lifted the wand to have it quickly taken away, causing him to twitch slightly in annoyance.

"Here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy."

Harry started to emit low growls with each subsequent wand that was rejected, "I'm starting to get royally ticked off here."

"If it makes you feel any better, it took me nearly and hour to find my wand," Remus informed.

"You're not helping!" Harry snapped.

"A very tricky customer," Mr. Ollivander muttered before handing over another wand, "Try this one, an unusual combination, holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry rolled his eyes as he grabbed the wand, nearly dropping it in surprise when he felt warmth spread through his fingers and up into his hand; he stared at the wand for a minute before giving it a slight wave, a stream of purple and green sparks emerging from the tip as he did so.

"Very good, very good," Mr. Ollivander spoke before placing the wand back into its box and wrapping it up, muttering, "Curious…curious…"

"What is it?" Harry asked, eyeing the man with a guarded look.

Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare before speaking, "I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter, every single one. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather resides in your wand gave another, just one other. It is very curious that this wand would choose you when its brother gave you that scar."

Harry's eyes widened slightly in surprise, as did Remus' who was listening in.

"Thirteen-and-a-half inches, yew…curious how things like these happen. The wand chooses its wizard, remember that. I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter…after all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things, terrible as they were, but great."

Harry swallowed loudly before asking quietly, "While I'm here, and if you don't mind my asking, what do I do if I needed an extra wand? In theory, I mean."

"A few wizards carry a spare wand around them incase their main one becomes damaged or they are disarmed," Ollivander informed, "I regret to say this, but I doubt you would find a suitable wand in my shop for at least two reasons: one, most likely there is not another compatible match here and two, I doubt that you would want a wand that has Ministry tracers on it, considering you are quite comfortable with breaking rules…especially in the muggle world." Harry and Remus stared with wide eyes at what the older wizard was implying.

"If you say anything—" Harry started, a sharp look in his eyes, before he was abruptly cut off.

"What a person does with their wand, if it is illegal, simply makes me feel guilty, but I do not report what has not happened yet," Mr. Ollivander spoke.

Harry twitched slightly in a combination of nerves and agitation as he was handed his wand, he paid the seven Galleons for it and walked out of the store.

"Ze'ev, is there another place I can get a wand…off record?" Harry asked, as they walked down the street.

"Not in Diagon Alley," Remus answered.

"Where then?" Harry responded.

"Knockturn Alley, but we'd have to go when you're disguised, on the off chance someone would recognize you and wonder why you're down there," Remus informed.

"Is Knockturn Alley that bad?" Harry asked, with an arched eyebrow, "Because we've been through a lot more dangerous stuff."

"It's just a bit… shady, and the fact people know magic makes going there a bit more risky," Remus explained.

"Okay, we'll go later…anything else we have to do?" Harry asked.

"Just your potions ingredients and then we'll get some lunch, how's that?" Remus answered.

"Sounds fine to me," Harry responded as they continued on their way.

As they approached the apothecary, Harry noted that Jin was shaking his head in annoyance and was, apparently, sneezing, "What's the matter?"

"What is it?" Remus asked.

"I don't know, something's just bothering him," Harry responded, rubbing Jin behind his ears to sooth him, "I'm sure he'll be fine."

Remus gave a noncommittal shrug before opening the door to the shop and leading them inside.

As soon as he stepped through the doorway, Jin covered up his nose and gave a soft whine at the same time Harry covered up his own nose.

"Guess we've figured out what's wrong," Remus commented.

"You got that right," Harry retorted, "I don't like this place, my nose is going nuts."

"I'll get the ingredients, the two of you wait outside," Remus compromised, "stay next to the door and don't wander off."

"Deal," Harry responded, quickly leading Jin outside, "Ugh, I really don't want to ever go in that place again," Jin responded with a slight sneeze, to which Harry smiled, "You feeling better?" He asked, patting Jin on the head. Jin responded with a soft grunt before licking Harry's hand, "I didn't like that shop either, it reeks."

"Where'd they go, where'd they go?" a worried voice muttered.

Harry looked up to see a girl looking franticly up and down the street; he walked up to her and tapped on her shoulder, "What's wrong?"

The girl turned to him briefly before darting her gaze over the Alley again, "I got separated from my parents and I can't find them."

"Calm down, we'll help you look for them," Harry offered.

"Really?" the girl responded, hopeful.

"Really…what's your name, by the way?" Harry asked, giving a calming smile.

"Hermione Granger, what's yours?" She answered.

"I'm Harry and this is Jin, he's my pet," Harry responded, scratching his pet under the chin.

"You have a hyena as a pet? …that's unique," Hermione replied, giving a slight noise of surprise as Jin sniffed her.

"He's trying to track down your parents by looking for anyone who has a similar scent as you," Harry explained, "Should've warned you about that, sorry."

Jin sniffed Hermione for a few more seconds before letting out a soft noise and turning his nose to the ground; he sniffed around quickly before taking off down the Alley.

"Hopefully he actually found then," Harry spoke, grabbing Hermione's arm as the two followed after the racing animal.

"You mean he might have the wrong person?" Hermione responded.

"He's not exactly trained for to do this, so give him a break!" Harry retorted.

Hermione idly wondered what she had gotten herself into when Harry suddenly stopped, causing her to crash into him, "What's wrong?"

"Jin stopped," Harry answered before glancing down the side alley they were standing in front of, noticing there was a sign calling the place Knockturn Alley and spotting a couple being harassed, "Are those your parents?"

Hermione took a better look, "Yes, that's them; I think they're in trouble."

Harry eyed the people surrounding Hermione's parents, there were only three and all seemed to be physically weaker than what he was used to; he could take them down by himself. He cast a brief look at Jin, silently telling him to watch Hermione before speaking, "If you don't want to get hurt, Hermione, stay here."

"Harry!" Hermione attempted to grab Harry's jacket to keep him from running off but it slipped through her fingers, she glanced down at Jin, "Aren't you going to help him?" Jin stared back with the hyena equivalent of a person saying 'What're you, nuts?' before Hermione remembered he was an animal. She sighed and looked up in time to see Harry dropkick one of her parents' harassers in the head; she watched in a mixture of astonishment and amazement as Harry easily fought off the attackers and chased them away.

"Are you guys okay?" Harry asked, helping up Hermione's parents.

"Yes we are, thank you," Mr. Granger spoke, gratefully shaking Harry's hand.

"No problem," Harry remarked as he lead the two back to Diagon Alley and to a relieved Hermione.

"You're crazy," Hermione stated to Harry after quickly hugging her parents.

"Tell me something I don't know," Harry laughed as they all made their way back to apothecary to where he spotted an anxious Remus, "What's got you so worked up?"

"I thought I told you to stay right outside the door," Remus retorted, inwardly sighing with relief that Harry was back, "Your mother would kill me if she found out I lost you."

"…you know you just gave me good blackmail material, right?" Harry teased.

"…if I buy you a sundae, will you keep quiet?" Remus sighed.

"Deal!" Harry exclaimed, widely grinning.

"You shouldn't bribe him with sugar," Mrs. Granger informed.

"What're you, a doctor?" Harry sarcastically retorted.

"Actually, we're both dentists," Mr. Granger corrected.

Harry stared at the two for a moment before slowly moving and hiding behind Remus.

Remus could not help but smile, "That's the first time I've seen Harry be so scared."

"I'm not scared…I'm being cautious," Harry retorted.

—**HJH—**

After exchanging brief pleasantries, Remus suggested getting lunch together so Harry and Hermione could talk a bit longer before going their separate ways. As they browsed what they could eat, Harry asked what Remus would recommend.

"In my opinion, I think Hermione and you might like pumpkin juice or butterbeer to drink," Remus suggested, "Not sure what to suggest to eat, though."

"Butterbeer," Harry spoke up, "Pumpkin juice sounds gross."

"I'll have the juice," Hermione responded as they decided what to eat.

The two future students quickly plunged into a conversation at what they were looking forward to at Hogwarts, ignoring the adults completely until their food arrived.

"What house do you think you'll be in, Harry?" Hermione asked, starting to eat her lunch.

Harry took a bit out of the sandwich he had ordered while he thought over his answer, "Not sure really."

"I'd like to be in Gryffindor, the headmaster was in that house too," Hermione responded.

"You want to be in one house because someone else was? That's just stupid," Harry spoke.

"What house would you want to be in then?" Hermione retorted.

"Whatever's good for me," Harry answered simply, tearing off a piece of his sandwich and feeding it to Jin, "Probably not Gryffindor at least, I would go nuts in a house full of goody two shoes."

Remus chuckled lightly at Harry's response before explaining his attitude to Hermione and her parents, "Harry's parents have taught him to live and experience things with an open mind and to do things his own way…that has gotten him into trouble more than once."

"If you're referring to what I did at Ritchie's school, remember, that was an accident!" Harry remarked.

"What happened there?" Hermione asked.

"You don't want to know," Harry interrupted, sending Remus a glare which threatened to do bodily damage if he told.

"I just hope he forgot completely about Zonko's…" Remus muttered under his breath.

"I almost did, thanks for reminding me!" Harry exclaimed, grinning before taking a sip of his butterbeer, pausing for a moment before downing the rest of the bottle, "Ze'ev…I **love** this stuff, can I get another?"

"Just don't drink too many," Remus responded, getting another bottle.

Several minutes later had Harry grinning extremely widely in his seat, four bottles of butterbeer in front of him and another half empty in his hand.

"Um, Harry, don't you think you should slow down?" Hermione asked, slowly moving away from the hyper boy.

"Why?" Harry responded, finishing up his current bottle before turning to Remus with expectant eyes.

"You're not getting another one," Remus sighed.

"You're no fun!" Harry pouted, slumping in his chair.

Remus smiled at Harry before continuing his discussion with Hermione's parents.

Harry tuned out their conversation before turning to Hermione and quietly asked, "Do you know what Zonko's is?"

Hermione scrunched up her nose in distaste, "I went in there for a few minutes before leaving very quickly, it's a joke shop."

"A joke shop?" Harry parroted, attempted to look disinterested, but an excited smile crept across his face as plans started racing through his mind at what he could find there.

"I can't believe that a place like that would be so close to the bookstore, it also promotes causing mischief and distraction," Hermione stated, before noting that Harry had silently slipped out of his chair and was quickly heading back to Diagon Alley, "Mr. Ze'ev? Harry just left."

Remus looked up suddenly, "Where'd he go?"

"I think he went to go check out Zonko's he seemed really excited on going after I told him it was a joke shop," Hermione informed.

Remus grew very pale after hearing where Harry had most likely gone, he laid down some coins on the table to pay for lunch and got up, "Sorry about leaving like this, but I have to get Harry before he does anything…"

The Grangers watched as Remus quickly left the Leaky Cauldron and went back to Diagon Alley.

"Why'd he act like Harry being in Zonko's was that bad of a thing?" Hermione asked.

"Maybe he goes overboard with pranks?" Mrs. Granger guessed.

"Maybe he's worried that Harry will do the same thing he did to his friend's school, whatever it was," Mr. Granger supposed.

"Maybe…" Hermione wondered as they continued to eat their lunch.

As the Grangers got up, they heard a fairly large boom a bit before the Cauldron shook, causing several dishes to crash to the floor around the room.

'…I hope that Harry wasn't involved in that…' Hermione thought after making sure her parents were fine.

—**HJH—**

"_An explosion rocked a part of Diagon Alley this afternoon, and while the cause is not clear, it apparently came from Zonko's Joke Shop. According to one employee, several pranks reacted to a currently unknown outside source, leading to the blast…"_

Fred looked up from the article in the Evening Prophet and stared at his brother, "Flaw in the pranks or something else?"

"I think someone else did it," George remarked.

"Someone blew up Zonko's?" Fred responded, a hint of amazement in his voice, "Even if it's an accident, that's pretty cool."

"Either they're very good or very bad at pranks," George replied, grinning.

"You think we'll run into them?" Fred asked, idly cutting out the article.

"Who knows…but if we do, hope we don't get on their bad side," George answered.

* * *

A/N: If anyone's mad that Harry and Hermione are still gonna be pals, just imagine how much fun it'll be for Harry to corrupt her and turn her against authority! :D

The next chap will either deal with Harry and Remus hanging out in the wizarding world or what's going on back in Gotham...which one do you guys wanna read about? :P


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Holy crap, it's been nearly a month since the last update! I'm seriously sorry guys! I blame my writer's block and the general craziness that is my life. The next chapter will be in Gotham and how Prank is getting used to acting like Harry...hopefully it won't take me another month to put it up...

BTW, edited it slightly because of a mistake some reviewers pointed out.

* * *

"I can't believe you did that," Remus muttered, wiping soot off Harry for the second time that day.

"I can," Harry smirked before rubbing his forehead, "Um, Remus…am I missing an eyebrow?"

"…you're missing one completely and the other's partially singed off," Remus informed.

"…never had an explosion do that!" Harry beamed widely, extremely proud of himself for the bit of unintentional destruction he had caused.

"I'd tell you not to make a habit out of it, but it's far too late to do that," Remus sighed.

"You got that right!" Harry responded, laughing slightly as Jin licked the spot where his eyebrow used to be.

"Could you possible tone it down while you're at Hogwarts?" Remus asked, "I don't think anyone would be happy at the fact you could be the youngest person to be expelled in the school's history."

"I make no promises…unless they involve pie," Harry answered.

—**HJH—**

Remus glanced over to where Harry was sprawled out on the bed, asleep; Jin was curled up on the bed next to the tired boy and being partially used as a pillow, Harry sleepily muttered something about jelly donuts before shifting slightly and turning over. Remus smiled at the scene before quietly exiting the room, stopping briefly to cast a quick spell on the door to make sure no one else would enter until he came back; he quietly made his way through the empty pub and into Diagon Alley before going into Knockturn Alley, after making sure that no one was following him, for once he was somewhat thankful for his condition since it made walking through the gloom a bit easier and allowed him to quickly locate which shop might be the most promising. Entering the dimly lit shop, Remus scanned the room before being startled by the sudden appearance of the shopkeeper.

"Can I help you with something, this evening?" the man asked.

"I need a custom wand made, quietly of course," Remus spoke.

"You've come to the right place, what do you want it made out of?"

"It's not for me, it's for my…" Remus attempted to come up with a good excuse when he was interrupted.

"Say no more, who am I to judge who acquires these things? If you wish to know, there are several ways to make a custom wand," the man spoke, "But its true power lies in the core that's used, and I don't mean things like phoenix feathers or unicorn tails…"

"What do you use then?" Remus asked.

"I can make a core from the hairs of the person who'd be using it, a crystal with their blood in it, a variety of things…for the right price," the man informed, "Using blood is usually taboo as it has the unfortunate connotations of being used for 'Dark Arts' but they provided a much better flow of magic."

"…I'll come back tomorrow with the person this wand is needed for," Remus spoke, leaving a few coins on the counter to make sure the man would keep his silence and exiting the dark shop. 'Harry will be happy with this news…hopefully he won't try to blow up anything _else_ in celebration.'

Remus was grateful to get back to the room and was amused to find that Harry had kicked off his sheets and was almost falling off the bed; he carefully nudged the boy into the middle of the bed and covering him up again before going to sleep himself.

—**HJH—**

"Hey Ze'ev, we need to figure out how I can contact home since you said Hogwarts doesn't have phones, which is really stupid, and owls would take too long," Harry spoke as they made their way down the alley, "By the way, why'd you make me change my look?"

Remus glanced down at the now blonde haired and blue eyed child before responding in a quiet voice, "We're heading into Knockturn Alley to get your other wand, so don't draw attention to yourself."

"…you're kidding, right?" Harry retorted, a disbelieving look on his face.

"Just keep quiet," Remus sighed, 'It's a good thing we left Jin behind, or else it'd be too hard to slip into Knockturn with him.'

"Which shop is it?" Harry asked, intruding on Remus' thoughts.

Remus glanced around slightly before pointing out the shop he had visited last night and quickly leading Harry in.

"Welcome back, sir, I believe that you said you'd be bringing along the person we were making the wand for…or was that simply an excuse?" the shopkeeper spoke, not seeing Harry.

"Down here," Harry retorted before muttering under his breath, "I hate being short."

The man looked down at Harry before glancing up at Remus, "I don't take kindly to jokes."

"This isn't a joke; in the muggle world, he has a tendency to do things that are…frowned upon by most people," Remus responded, "I doubt being in the magical world will change that a bit."

"If you try to mess with me, I'm strapping you down to a chair and will torture you slowly…starting with a cheese grater and tacks," Harry threatened.

"Don't do that," Remus spoke, "When your mother does it is bad enough, I don't need you to start."

"You're no fun!" Harry pouted.

The man cleared his throat in discomfort, mainly at hearing a child so earnestly and casually discussing torture, to grab their attention and spoke in a slightly strained voice, "Let's get started making that wand, shall we?"

"Can't wait," Harry responded.

The man collected a stone bowl that had runes carved into it, and started asking Harry several questions, adding an ingredient from a jar, pot, or bottle after he would answer.

"What're the questions for exactly?" Remus asked, after Harry had answered an inquiry about whether he preferred the darkness or light, the response being darkness.

"To craft this mixture specifically to him," the shopkeeper answered, "There shouldn't be anyone else able to even _use_ the wand when everything is completed."

"But 'should' implies that someone might be able to," Remus pointed out.

"The chances of that are very slim; the person would have had to experience everything he has and be identical completely to him in everyway, especially if certain ingredients are added in," the man clarified, asking one more question on what was more important: riches or companions.

"Who says you can't have both?" Harry answered, causing a raised eyebrow from the man.

"I see…" the man muttered before adding one more item and giving the contents of the bowl a few slow stirs, "It's almost finished."

Harry wrinkled his nose at the smell coming from the bowl, "Okay, so what do I do now?"

"Just add some of your blood or hair or both if you like," the shopkeeper informed.

"This is getting really weird now," Harry muttered, plucking a few hairs off his hand and tossing them into the bowl before cutting open his finger and letting some blood fall, "Second time in two days I've lost blood without getting into a fight."

The shopkeeper let out a small noise of astonishment as the mixture started to turn a dark green, "Never seen that in someone so young…"

"What is it?" Remus asked.

"Nothing, nothing," the man responded.

"Tell me what's up, or you'll lose the use of one your hands," Harry threatened.

The man swallowed loudly in nervousness before speaking, "It's very rare, for a child to have such darkness in his systems. That usually happens if his parents were very dark themselves of he has been exposed to that kind of magic."

"Really… well, I've never been known to be a normal kid, so who cares?" Harry remarked, "Is there anything else I need to do or are we done?"

"No…just place your hands in the circles on the opposite sides of the bowl and try to focus your magic into it…if you can," the man informed.

"Don't underestimate me," Harry spoke, glaring slightly as he did as instructed. He closed his eyes as he exhaled slowly, not noticing that that runes carved into the bowl began gleaming an odd shade of green; they started at the circles surrounding his hands before spreading to the rest of the surface, bathing the room in an eerie glow.

The two men stared at the sight before becoming aware of the fact that the runes had started to go up Harry's arms.

"What's happening?" Remus asked, reaching out to pull Harry away.

"Don't!" the man warned, "If you disrupt him, there will be a magical backlash that will most likely injure us and ruin my shop. It's best to let this run its course."

"…if this is permanent or does any lasting damage to him, if you're lucky, his parents will only skin you alive," Remus warned.


	6. Epic Imitation Failure

AN: I live! -laughs hysterically before clearing throat- Sorry about that, been a little screw loose lately.

Harry "A _little_?"

...Don't judge me man! To my readers, sorry about the month long delay _again_...damn you brain! On another note, I found out that 'Jin' actually has a meaning behind it: compassion...or something like that. And here I thought I was just making a punny name. :P

* * *

Prank rubbed his eyebrows absently, quietly muttering, "That's odd…"

"What's wrong?" Harley asked, looking up from her job of modifying a stolen ice cream truck into an armored vehicle for safer getaways.

"I feel as if my eyebrows are on fire…must be my imagination," Prank answered before opening a window, "I will be out for a while; do not bother staying awake for me."

"…stop talking like that, it makes you sound un-Harry-like," Joker butt in.

"I am working on it, I have been for a week now," Prank retorted.

"And you still suck at it!" Joker laughed before ducking a pipe Prank hurled at him.

"My aim is just as good, though," Prank smirked.

"Just get comfortable being Harry and you'll be fine," Harley cut in, quickly defusing the potential fight from starting.

"I know, I know," Prank sighed as he slipped out though the window.

—**HJH—**

Prank landed on the roof of an apparently abandoned apartment building before moving as quietly as he could down the fire escape, it took him a moment to figure out which apartment was actually housing the person he was looking for and, after making sure no one would notice him, quickly entered. He rolled his eyes at the piles of completed riddle, puzzle, and logic books scattered about the room before homing in on the person he had wanted to talk to.

"How are you, Riddler?" Prank asked, perching on a chair near the green clad villain.

Riddler glanced up at Prank for a moment before turning back to his work, simply stating, "You're not Harry."

Prank tilted his head in confusion, "How did you know that I was not him?"

"The fact you called me Riddler," he answered, finishing up on his current project, "Harry always calls me Uncle Riddles."

"I see…cannot believe I forgot that…" Prank responded while warily eyeing the cane near the man, "I am surprised you have not hit me yet."

"If you were going to do anything to me, I think you would've done so already," Riddler informed, "Who are you really?"

"I am a part of Harry…to avoid confusion just call me Prank," he answered, "As to how I am here, that is a bit more complicated…Harry is right, I need to work on my speech."

Riddler chuckled lightly, "He's right, you sound a lot older than you should be. You need to bring yourself to Harry's level, relax."

"Great advice coming from a man who has OCD," Prank replied sarcastically.

"…blame my father…" Riddler mumbled.

"I believe there's medication that could help you with that," Prank offered.

"And lose my riddling skills? No thank you!" Riddler responded.

"It was only a suggestion," Prank sighed.

"Is there anything you need?" Riddler asked.

"No, I just felt that if I am to give the appearance that I am Harry, I should do what he does, visit members of his…family," Prank answered.

"He actually considers us Gotham 'baddies' his family?" Riddler spoke, a bit stunned.

"Harry has a skewed perception of things," Prank responded, "He considers anyone that doesn't hurt him as a very special person and has basically grouped anyone like that as part of his family, simple as that."

"I've heard cases of people doing that, especially after serious trauma or abuse," Riddler guessed, "What did Harry go through before he came to Gotham?"

"It's not for me to tell, ask Harry but I doubt he'd tell you anyways," Prank responded before turning to leave, "By the way, you might want to toss some of your old puzzle books or else you'd have enough gathered here to make furniture."

"…I'm currently sitting on a stack glued together to make a stool…"

—**HJH—**

"Don't drop in uninvited, even if you look like the kid," Two-Face spoke, pointing a gun at Prank's face.

Prank sighed in exasperation, "You're the second person to point out that I'm not Harry and it's getting annoying…at least my speech is improving a bit."

"Lucky me, I'm second," Two-Face remarked.

"How'd you figure it out?" Prank asked before adding, "Do you mind putting the gun down, I'd rather not want to go back to Ivy to get fixed up so soon."

"I'm an expert at split personalities, I know about Harry's and you don't act that much like him," Two-Face answered, keeping the gun trained on Prank for a moment longer before lowering it.

"I see…do you have any advice at being more like Harry?" Prank inquired.

"Yeah, pull the stick out of your ass," Two-Face answered.

"…other than that?" Prank growled.

"Just relax," Two-Face responded.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?!" Prank screamed, nearly pulling out his hair in anger.

"Because you're too damn uptight," Two-Face remarked.

"I was being sarcastic!" Prank snapped before quickly leaving, knocking over a stack of money just to spite Two-Face.

Prank grumbled darkly as he quickly ran across the rooftops, working a few flips in to his traveling to get more in touch with Harry's mindset. "Just my luck, I've completely failed at imitating Harry…this whole this is never going to work!" he muttered to himself, jumping over a TV antenna and continuing his way back to the current hideout. Prank was so immersed in his self deprecation that he did not notice that he was being followed until he was knocked into a water tower.

"What's wrong Prank, getting rusty?" Robin taunted as Prank picked himself up.

"I'm not in the mood Robin," Prank retorted, before throwing a card.

"What is wrong with you?" Robin asked, easily dodging the object.

"What do you mean?" Prank responded.

"Your aim's off and you're not as insulting," Robin answered, "Not like you…"

"You have no idea," Prank muttered under his breath, before quickly moving in to attack close range.

"And, you're not fighting dirty," Robin added, "Did you hit your head or something?"

Prank let out a noise of annoyance before pretending to punch towards the Boy Wonder's head and then proceeding to knee him in the stomach.

"That's a bit more like it," Robin muttered, falling back slightly and holding his stomach.

'Damn it, I need to work on my fighting too,' Prank dodged a kick and landed a solid kick to Robin's crotch, causing him to hit the ground with a strangled sound of pain, "While this has been fun, Bird-boy, I'm not in much of a mood to play, some other time maybe." With that, Prank smashed several gas capsules against the ground and used the smoke to disguise his escape.

—**HJH—**

"What's wrong?" Harley asked as Prank slipped in through the window.

"I still need more work on imitating Harry, Riddler and Two-Face figured me out and Robin almost did too," Prank sighed in agitation as he pulled off his mask and goggles, "I was going to visit Poison Ivy and Catwoman too, but thought not to push my luck after encountering Robin…combined with the fact my self-esteem couldn't take another blow if anyone else figured me out."

"Cheer up, hun, I know you'll do better," Harley encouraged, messing up his hair affectionately.

Prank stared at her for a moment before asking, "Why did you call me that?"

"Call you what?" Harley responded.

"You called me 'hun', you only call Harry that," Prank answered.

"The two of you might have different names, but to me you're both my son," Harley answered.

Prank remained silent out of shock before giving Harley a small smile, "Thank you for that."

"No problem," Harley smiled, giving Prank a brief hug.

Prank smiled to himself at the kind gesture before walking off to his/Harry's room to lay down on the bed, deciding that while he did not really need it he could use a bit of rest; he idly wondered how Harry was faring in the Wizarding world so far before closing his eyes and drifting off; he was unsurprised to find himself in a recreation of Harry's field of memories since it was all he really had. 'What to watch today? Maybe that memory of what Harry did to that man with the egg beater and the turkey baster; as disturbing as that was, it was hysterical.'

While exploring the field looking for a memory to kill his time, Prank felt a familiar sensation in the back of his mind. He looked around himself, wondering what exactly it was that he was feeling when he heard something.

"_Whoa… how'd I get back home?"_ '…Harry?' _"Prank…is that you?" _'In the plant flesh…I thought we'd be too far apart to talk like this?' _"I don't know how this is happening but it's interesting…by the way, did you and my parents pull a heist yesterday?" _'We did, why do you ask?' _"I dreamt about it…you think our connection is more than what we thought?" _'Maybe you see through my eyes when you sleep? That's as good an explanation I can think of.' _"Have you seen anything through me yet, then?" _'I don't think so because I don't sleep much, I just take quick naps.' _"Oh…I just realized something; you're talking like me now!" _'I do have to act like you…although I still need to work on it, Riddler and Two-Face have figured out I'm not you…Robin suspected something but I was gone before he figured it out.' _"Uncle Riddles is a genius and Two-Face is a master at split personalities." _'I kind of figured that…' _"Speaking of Robin, did you fight him?" _"Briefly, he was also suspicious since I wasn't fighting exactly like you do and my aim was off with the cards and capsules." _"Just keep on practicing all those things and no one should know you're not me…I have to go now, Prank, just keep practicing!" _'I will.'

—**HJH—**

"…that was trippy…" Harry mused, a dazed expression on his face.

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"I was back home, chatting with the other me," Harry responded, not noticing that he was currently sprawled out on the dirty floor of the shop.

"It's been a long time since I've seen someone have that reaction," the shopkeeper spoke, donning a pair of gloves to extract a dark green crystal from the bowl.

"That's Harry's blood," Remus half asked half stated.

"Yes, this will cause any wand it's implanted into to work only for him…in hindsight we should've had him pick out what to make his wand out of beforehand," the shopkeeper responded, glancing down at where Harry was still laying on the floor, a lazy smile etched on his face.


	7. Chapter 6

AN: If anything from this chapter strikes you as odd, it may be due to the fact most of it was written while I was sleep deprived and/or running solely off sugar.

Joker: "Wasn't that how this story came about in the first place?"

Shut up Joker, or I won't make the brownies again! –twitches- And to my readers, I'm _really_ sorry about taking a month to write this…and hooray that an actual crossover section has been created!

* * *

Harry and Remus spent about another week at Diagon Alley, a few of those days dedicated to Harry getting back to himself and putting the finishing touches on his wand, which was now comprised of the crystal of Harry's blood and magic with the wood being yew, causing the maker to give Harry an odd look when he choose what wood to use.

"What's wrong with it?" Harry had asked.

"Yew is mainly indicative of death," the man responded, continuing his work.

"That's ridiculously ironic considering my line of work," Harry whispered to Remus causing his henchman to stare at him oddly, "What?"

"Have you actually…" Remus trailed off.

"No," Harry responded, to Remus' relief before adding, "Not yet anyways."

"…I'll just ignore that…" Remus sighed.

"Don't you always?" Harry laughed.

—**HJH—**

"…we need to put a cushion or something like that in front of this…" Harry muttered after tumbling out of the fireplace, he stood up and quickly brushed himself off, "Mum, dad, we're back!"

"They are currently out," Prank responded, walking into the room, "I think they mentioned something about 'painting the town green and purple'…"

**(Quick cut)**

"…Harley, do you see what I see?" Joker asked, staring in disbelief at what was in front of him, a bucket of paint nearly slipping from his fingers.

"If you're talking about the Batmobile right in front of us, then yeah, I see it," Harley answered.

"…let's give it a new paintjob!" Joker yelled, promptly dumping the contents of his bucket onto the hood of the vehicle with Harley eagerly joining in.

**(Quick cut)**

"Oh," Harry remarked before quickly jumping away from the fireplace when the flames lit up again.

"I think we need to find another way to get back to England when you have to go to Hogwarts, Jin hates the Floo Network," Remus spoke, stepping out the fireplace and letting go of Jin who quickly leapt into Harry's arms.

"You may have a point there," Harry remarked before tilting his head slightly in curiosity and asking, "Are you alright? You like paler than normal…full moon coming up again?"

"I believe so; I need to stop at Visigoth Ave to pick up some more potion," Remus answered.

"Okay then, I can handle myself just fine," Harry responded, "Actually, I'll call up Ritchie and see if we can meet up later…I'm glad we found a wizarding house that has a phone too, the magical and muggle combined! Why isn't it like that over in England?"

"I suppose they're old fashioned that way," Remus answered as he left.

"Hey Prank, have you made any progress in being me?" Harry joked, putting Jin down so he could play with his parents.

"Unfortunately no," Prank sighed, depressed with his failure.

"Maybe because you're all you and you have no me?" Harry guessed.

"…I still have no idea as to how you can think like that," Prank responded.

"What I'm trying to say is that you have none of my personality so it's making it hard for you to imitate me," Harry explained, "Maybe if you had some of my magic it would help."

"I should have some semblance of your personality since I have your memories, but I suppose that my own personality cannot simply be ignored or easily overwritten," Prank responded with a sigh, "And as evidenced by Poison Ivy's attempts, she couldn't replicate your magic no matter how many times she tried."

"Maybe we just needed to do it separately?" Harry reasoned, a plan forming in his head.

"What do you mean?" Prank asked, curious as to what Harry had in mind.

"This may or may not work, but it's worth a try…and don't talk, you might distract me," Harry responded putting his hands on Prank's head, and concentrating on his magic to flow through his body and into Prank's.

"Harry, what're you doing?" Prank asked, also wondering how they had suddenly ended up in the field of memories.

"Giving you some of my magic…how the heck we get here?" Harry muttered.

"Maybe it's the connection, or something else…magic is confusing," Prank sighed.

"Hey, you didn't sound so uptight that time!" Harry pointed out.

"Y-you're right, this is actually working!" Prank exclaimed with a wide smile on his face, "I feel incredible; like I want to just…I have no clue how to explain it!"

Harry laughed at how Prank was now on the verge of bouncing off the walls, "I can't believe it actually worked! I was just taking a shot in the dark."

"I'm glad you did!" Prank responded before quickly sweeping up Harry into a bruising hug.

"Glad you're happy," Harry smiled, "We need to get back to the real world, I'm meeting up with Ritchie later, remember?"

—**HJH—**

"Hey there, Harry," Dick greeted.

"Aloha, Ritchie," Harry smiled, perched on 'his' swing as the two had dubbed it.

"I thought you weren't coming back for a while?" Dick responded, sitting next to him.

"Certain circumstances have changed things; I'll be here in Gotham for a while before heading off," Harry explained, wondering if Remus was fine with the full moon coming up soon.

"I see…what do you want to do then?" Dick asked.

"Don't know…I don't have any money and my house is a bit of a mess, so that's out," Harry smoothly lied.

At the mention of Harry's house, Dick perked up, "You've never been to my place, have you?"

"Nope, we only hang out here at the park or at random places around the city," Harry admitted, "But there was that one time where we went to that penthouse for a party at Halloween."

"You spiked the punch that day and you convinced me to get away from the party to egg cars with you," Dick remarked with a smile.

"Don't say you didn't enjoy it," Harry responded with a laugh, "But anyways, if you don't mind, I'd like to see where you hang your hat."

"Sure, how about you stay over too?" Dick offered, "I'm sure Bruce or Alfred wouldn't mind."

"Cool, how about I stay over tomorrow night then?" Harry responded with a smile, "Things are too crazy to do it tonight."

"That'd be fine by me," Dick grinned.

"I'll meet you here tomorrow, the usual time, with my stuff," Harry clarified.

"Perfect," Dick responded; the two of them played a bit longer before parting ways, both very excited about tomorrow.

When Harry arrived at the park the next day, he found Dick standing next to an older man in front of an expensive car.

"Exactly on time, you got a clock in your head?" Dick remarked with a smile.

"Leave the jokes to me, Ritchie, you're no good at them," Harry responded with a grin as he climbed onto the backseat.

"Just don't involve a rubber chicken again, I couldn't breathe with how badly I was laughing," Dick responded.

"I'm sure that's quite an interesting story," the old man spoke, sitting in the driver's seat.

"Um…hi there, I don't think we've met," Harry responded; unsure of how to speak with the man sitting in the driver's seat.

"We did meet briefly at the Halloween party last year, but you and Master Dick ran off quite quickly when you arrived," the man spoke, a glimpse of a smile could be seen on his face in his reflection of the rearview mirror.

Harry turned to Dick with a raised eyebrow, "Did he just call you 'Master Dick'?"

Dick simply let out a self-conscious laugh, "He's like that; that's Alfred, he's our butler."

"Oh…nice to meet you!" Harry greeted.

—**HJH—**

As the car made its way up the long path, Harry let out a low whistle, "You could hold at least two soccer matches on a lawn this big!"

"I don't have enough friends to have one though," Dick joked.

"True," Harry admitted before asking, "Have you every played paintball?"

"…don't those hurt?"

"It leaves a welt if you're not wearing any padding, _that's_ what hurts," Harry corrected, "If you're protected, you're fine."

"How do you know stuff like that?" Dick asked, getting out of the car.

"Uncles that like to shoot at each other but don't want to get arrested," Harry answered.

"…how many uncles do you have?" Dick remarked.

"Related to me, only one but I hate him anyways so he doesn't count. I have a whole bunch that I care for though," Harry responded, "My parents tell me I have a tendency to 'collect' people into a sort of family for myself."

"It fits with your personality, in a way, you seem like a bit of a packrat to me," Dick reasoned, opening the front doors.

Harry checked out his surroundings before blurting out, "This place is huge!"

"That was my reaction too," Dick laughed before turning to Alfred, "Is Bruce home yet?"

"Master Bruce has a meeting, but should be home in an hour or so," Alfred answered.

"Okay then," Dick responded as he turned to Harry, "What me to show you around?"

"Sure!" Harry replied following after Dick; as the two ran off, Alfred could not help but smile to himself in amusement.

As they rushed by a series of windows, Harry glanced outside and offhandedly commented, "Nice pool."

"You want to go swimming later?" Dick offered.

"That sounds great, but I don't have any swimwear," Harry responded.

"You can borrow some of mind, we're not that different in size even though you're a bit smaller than me," Dick countered.

"Thanks for reminding me about my height," Harry groused before quietly admitting, "To be honest, I don't know how to swim, I never learned."

"I'll teach you then," Dick responded.

"Great," Harry spoke sarcastically.

They made a quick stop by Dick's room to drop off Harry's bag and pick up some swimming trunks; after changing into them, the two boys made their way outside where the better lighting caused Dick to notice something, which prompted him to ask, "Hey Harry, what's up with your back?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Harry muttered, knowing that his friend was referring to the scars on his back, some came from going around as Prank but the bigger and worse ones came from when he was still with the Dursleys.

"Are you sure?" Dick pressed, thinking that Harry's parents did something to him.

"…It's not from my parents, if that's what you're thinking…these came from my previous 'guardians'. They're the ones who did this and they'll pay for it anyways so stop worrying," Harry responded.

Dick noted the tone of hate when Harry talked about his old guardians, especially when he mentioned that they would pay for what had happened, "If you're sure…"

"Just drop it, Ritchie," Harry retorted, before standing stiffly at the edge of the pool, "You teaching me or not?"

"Being that tense will make you sink," Dick informed before jumping into the pool. When he surfaced he spoke, "If you don't want to jump in, you can use the stairs."

"Thanks," Harry grumbled, walking into the water, "Okay, now what?"

"Just relax, tread water first and we'll go from there," Dick responded.

"How can I relax when I think I'm gonna drown?!" Harry exclaimed.

"I won't let you drown," Dick sighed, "Just kick your legs a little to keep you above the water.

"If I do drown, I'm haunting you for the rest of your life," Harry threatened.

"Deal," Dick answered, smirking knowing that Harry was joking to try to cover up how nervous he was.

After about ten minutes, Harry had learned enough of the basics to swim from one side of the pool to the other.

"This is easy!" Harry boasted before kicking away from the edge of the pool, not noticing he had drifted over to the deep end.

"Harry, be careful!" Dick warned.

Harry was set to respond before he noticed that he could not touch the ground and that he was starting to sink; the last thought he had before he slipped under the water was: 'Me and my big mouth!'

Dick quickly swam out to where Harry was and dove under the water, seeing Harry flailing around to try and reach the surface, but he was so turned around that he did not know what was up and what was down. Dick felt an odd sensation in his chest, as if his heart was being squeezed in a vise, when he saw Harry grow limp.

**(Quick cut)**

Prank clutched at his chest and started to cough and gasp for air.

"What's wrong?" Harley asked, putting a hand on his back to see if she could do anything.

"H-Harry, there's…something's happened…" Prank collapsed and kept trying to get air into him despite the fact he technically did not have lungs, "Have to help…need to get to him…"

Harley was roughly pushed aside as Prank jumped out through a window; she and Joker shared a look before hopping into the armored ice cream truck and giving chase.

**(Quick cut)**

Dick grabbed Harry's arm and quickly dragged him out of the water and onto the edge of the pool; he called out for Alfred before checking on his friend, quickly realizing that Harry was not breathing anymore. Dick carefully placed his hands on Harry's chest and pressed slightly a few times before tilting his head back, Dick hesitated for a moment before sealing his lips over Harry's and forcing air into his lungs; he continued the actions for another minute when he noticed Alfred running up to him. It was then that Harry jerked in response before turning slightly to cough up some water before growing limp on the tiling, his chest rising and falling with his shallow breaths.

"It's he going to be alright?" Dick worriedly asked, moving away from Harry so Alfred could get a better look.

"He should be just fine," Alfred answered, checking Harry's pulse

"I'm glad Bruce taught me CPR 'never know when you're going to need it'…" Dick remarked humorlessly.

As Alfred made sure that Harry was fine, he and Dick were surprised when Harry's hair suddenly darkened to black.

"…what was that?" Dick asked, breaking the silence that had emerged from the sudden change.

"Nothing I've seen," Alfred remarked, carefully picking Harry up, "I think swimming lessons are over for today."

Alfred carried Harry up to a guestroom and set him down on the bed; while double checking on the unconscious boy, he remembered something and a worried look crossed his face.

"What's wrong Alfred?" Dick asked.

"We have intruders," Alfred answered.

"Who?" Dick responded.

"Prank, with Joker and Harley Quinn following quite a bit behind him," Alfred responded.

"What're they doing here?" Dick spoke; fear crossing his face, "Do you think they know?"

"I am not sure, I've informed Master Bruce of the situation and he should be arriving shortly," Alfred informed, "But it might be best to be prepared for any possibilities.

Dick nodded in agreement before bolting down to the Batcave to better monitor the ground and to start changing into his Robin outfit; his eyes were fixed to the screen as he watch Prank sprint up the long driveway before coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the front door, chest heaving as he tried to get his senses together.

'Harry…Harry, answer me!' Prank called out, hoping that Harry would reply.

'…Prank…what's wrong?' Harry slowly responded.

'You're alright, that's good…' Prank's body sagged in relief before becoming rigid in realization, 'I've made a really stupid decision!'

'What're you talking about?' Harry inquired.

'Talk later, run away now!' Prank replied, noticing the ice cream truck screech to a stop behind him, he quickly turned on his heel and leapt into the back of the vehicle, "Floor it!"

"Are you crazy?" Harley yelled, as she drove madly away from the Wayne estate.

"Sorry, I got so caught up on what might've happened to Harry that I panicked," Prank responded.

"Hopefully we won't get caught by the Bat and sent to Arkham!" Joker cut in, before asking quietly, "How's the kid doing?"

"Harry's fine, I'm not sure exactly what happened but he's okay now," Prank answered as they made their getaway, "But this incident does have a slight upside to it."

"How can there be an upside to my son almost dying?!" Joker exclaimed, in an odd show of paternal concern.

"Both of us being in the same area at the same time might be a good idea to make it seem that Harry isn't me…meaning his criminal self," Prank explained.

"Never thought of something like that," Harley remarked.

"But it might not work at all, since there weren't more witnesses," Prank sighed, "Might have to do this again in a more public setting though…"

—**HJH—**

Bruce watched as the tricked out ice cream truck rushed pass and thought to follow before deciding it would be too conspicuous for himself to chase after them and continued back to the manor to make sure that everything was fine. After making sure that the Harlequin of Hate and his associates were not coming back anytime soon and that the grounds were secure again, Bruce went down to the Batcave to see if the 'Clown Clan', as the newspapers had dubbed them, had been up to anything else in that last twenty-four hours, other than painting the Batmobile. 'At least regular paint will be easier to remove than spray-paint.'

While Bruce was busy trying to figure out if the Joker was planning anything else, Dick had changed out of his costume and looked in on Harry in time to see him stirring.

"Drowning…not fun…" Harry muttered, a hand pressed to his chest.

"I would guess so," Dick responded, cracking a weak smile before asking, "What happened to your hair?"

"What do you mean?" Harry responded, sitting up on the bed.

"After you were pulled out of the pool, your hair turned black when you passed out," Dick explained.

Harry stared at his friend with wide eyes before holding a lock of his hair in his hands, it was black; he felt his pulse start to race and began to panic, "Y-y-you weren't supposed to ever see me do that!"

"Harry, it's okay, calm down!" Dick grabbed Harry's shoulders to get him to relax but drew his hands back quickly when he was shocked by a series of green sparks.

"It's not okay, it's not okay!" Harry yelled, hyperventilating, "You think I'm a freak don't you?!"

"Of course not!" Dick answered, "You're my friend, and I just want to know what happened to you."

"It's a…it's an ability I have…" Harry muttered, still unconsciously emitting green sparks.

"What about the sparks?" Bruce asked, walking into the room unexpectedly.

Harry flinched violently, "I guess that happens when I'm…"

"Scared? Nervous?" Dick offered.

"Either of those I guess," Harry responded.

"What about this ability you mentioned?" Bruce pushed.

"I think that now's not the time to press matters," Alfred intervened, "I think if would be best if Master Harry got some more rest." Bruce conceded to Alfred's thinly veiled order and left the room without comment.

"Thanks Alfred, I'm not really in the mood to explain much," Harry grateful for the man's intervention.

"You're welcome," Alfred responded before turning to leave the room as well, "If either of you need me, I'll be in the kitchen…making something sweet…"

"What was up with the 'making something sweet' line?" Harry remarked.

"He's going to make cookies to cheer you up," Dick informed.

Harry sat silently for a moment, allowing the knowledge to sink in before yelling, at the top of his lungs, "I LOVE COOKIES!"

"…remind me never to give you ice cream, then," Dick remarked from his spot on the floor, having fallen off the bed in surprise at Harry's outburst.

Dick quickly thought up a way to Harry from rushing downstairs to where the sweet scent of cookies drifted from when Alfred walked into the room, a tray with freshly made cookies and glasses of milk perched on it. Alfred raised an eyebrow at seeing one of Harry's arms tied to the headboard, "Is this a new game I've never heard of?"

"Er…not exactly," Dick sheepishly responded.

"Give me the cookies!" Harry screamed, tugging at his restraint.

It took a few minutes to get Harry calm enough to untie him without him jumping off the bed to attack the tray, and it caused Alfred a small amount of amusement to see Harry quickly quiet down as if he had not been set to start bouncing off the walls a moment ago.

"These are really good," Harry remarked, grabbing another cookie from the plate, "You have to tell me how you make them."

"Sorry, it's a secret," Alfred answered, a smile on his face as he left the room.

"Hey Ritchie…are you sure that you still want to be friends with me, even though I'm a freak?" Harry asked after a moment of silence.

"I don't think you're a freak, Harry, and we made a promise to always be friends no matter what, remember?" Dick spoke.

Harry gave a weak smile before quietly speaking, "Ritchie, I'll tell you why I can do that thing with my hair and the sparks but you can't tell anyone else, unless I say so, okay?"

"Scout's honor," Dick responded, curling his pinky around Harry's for a brief moment, reminding his friend of when they had first made their promise.

Harry gave a small smile at the gesture before speaking, "I'm…I'm a wizard."

Dick stared in disbelief for a moment before asking, "Like with wands and funny words?"

"Yeah, I just got my wand last week," Harry answered, "That's actually why I'll be gone, I'm going to this magical school overseas…it's a complicated thing to explain."

"Oh…what else can you do?" Dick asked.

"With my ability or magic in general?" Harry responded.

"Which would be easier to explain?" Dick clarified.

"My ability I guess, since it's better to show what I can do," Harry answered, his hair changing to blue.

"That's cool," Dick remarked.

"It's a really rare ability, guess I got lucky," Harry responded before adding quietly, "Guess I wouldn't have found out about it if I never came to Gotham…"

"What do you mean?" Dick asked.

"Best to sort of start at the beginning: the only reason I was with my previous guardians is because my birth parents were murdered when I was a baby and then I ran away from them and ended up here. Being scared and wanting to blend in caused me to learn I could change how I look," Harry answered, "Then a bunch of stuff happened, including: finding a new family, a friend of my parents finding me, and making friends with you…not in that order exactly."

"…your parents were murdered too?" Dick responded.

"What do you mean 'too'? What happened to yours?" Harry inquired.

"I used to be a part of the circus, I traveled with my parents, we were acrobats and were good enough to perform without nets…one night the trapeze wires were sabotaged and my parents…they fell," Dick admitted.

"…I'm sorry that I made you bring that up," Harry muttered.

"It's okay…guess we have more in common then we thought," Dick responded.

"…Ritchie, would you still be friends with me even if I did something really bad?" Harry asked.

"Of course," Dick answered, "I mean, what's the worst you can do?"

'…I guess I really shouldn't tell him about what I do at night then…' Harry thought before quietly muttering, "You'd be surprised."

Dick noted the comment and filed it away for later, "Is there anything else about magic world, or whatever you call it, you can tell me?"

"Well…my Uncle Remus is a werewolf," Harry replied.

"A werewolf…like 'turns into a beast on full moons' and 'tries to eat you' werewolf?" Dick responded.

"Yep, though the whole 'try to eat you' thing is taken care of because of this potion he drinks before the full moons so that he actually knows what he's doing on those days," Harry explained before laughing, "Though there was this one incident where his potion wasn't strong enough or something and his wolf self was more in control, but he could stop himself from biting or hurting anyone; the funniest thing was that he somehow ended up in the zoo and had to run home naked when he changed back in the morning."

Dick laughed too but also remembered a few months ago that Bruce had come across a roaming wolf during one of his patrols and after chasing down the creature, which seemed exceptionally intelligent for an animal, for nearly half and hour, he had finally tranquilized it and dropped it off at the zoo but was surprised when it vanished the next day. "What else about can you tell me?" Dick inquired.

"Um…I can tell you what I know about the guy who killed my birth parents, since you told me what happened to yours, but that might me too depressing," Harry answered.

"You don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable," Dick responded.

"I really don't feel too much about it because I don't remember anything, since I was only a baby…except for this really bright green light, I need to ask Remus about what that was later…anyways, all the information I know is from my uncle," Harry replied, "My parents stood up to this really bad wizard, who is best described as a magical version of Hitler because he wanted to wipe out all Muggles or Muggle-born witches or wizards."

"What's a 'muggle' if you don't mind my interrupting," Dick cut in.

"A 'Muggle' is a person who has no magic in their past at all and a 'Muggle-born' is a person who comes from that but does have magic," Harry explained, "I should tell you some other terms now instead of explaining later: a 'Squib' is the opposite of a Muggle-born since they come from a magical background but don't have any magic at all; 'Pure-bloods' are people who have no muggle blood in their line at all, it varies on whether they count to a certain number of generations or a family's entire history; and finally there's 'Half-bloods', this is the one where things are a bit confusing, I think a person is considered a Half-blood if their parents are: magical and muggle, Muggle-born and either Half or Pure-blood, or both are Half-bloods. There's a dumb ranking system Pure-bloods use to categorize everyone too."

"How do you rank a person?" Dick responded, taken aback and also trying to sort through the information he had just heard.

"I think they rank people like this, the best first and the worst last," Harry replied, "Pure-bloods, Half-bloods, Muggle-borns, and I think Muggles and Squibs tie for dead last…messed up, isn't it?"

"You got right," Dick responded, "Before I interrupted up, how'd your story go?"

"Oh yeah, back to the bad wizard dude, his name's Voldemort by the way, dumb name, but anyways, he wanted to wipe out anyone that wasn't a Pure-blood or didn't bow down to him.

"My birth parents fought against him and his followers, called Death Eaters, with a bunch of other people and one day he decided to kill them, he showed up at our home and killed my dad first and then my mom…but then something happened that prevented him from killing me, no one knows what happened other than that Voldemort just disappeared and I was left with this," Harry lifted up his bangs to show the scar on his forehead, "and the rest is just history. I suppose…in a way, might've been a good thing they died when I was a baby, at least it doesn't hurt that they're gone…not that I'm trying to say anything about your..."

"It's okay Harry, I get it," Dick interrupted.

The two friends steered away from less depressing topics and delved into talks of random things; after a while, Alfred entered the room and announced that dinner was going to be ready soon and that they should wear something other than swimwear when they came down to eat.

"Alfred is really…what's the word I'm looking for here?" Harry spoke as the two made their way downstairs.

"Sarcastic?" Dick offered.

"No…but it does start with an 'S' though," Harry responded, before stopping to think for a moment, "I got it, snarky!"

"…where do you get these words?" Dick sighed.

"I have an uncle who reads dictionaries and thesauruses a lot," Harry answered with a straight face.

"You have some weird family members."

'You have no idea.' Harry smiled to himself as he walked into the dinning room, "You could hold a feast in this place!"

"If only we had the guests for it," Bruce joked, appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

"Where'd you come from!?" Harry yelled, startled.

"He has a tendency to do that," Dick cut in, giving Bruce an annoyed look.

"Teach me, I'd be useful for playing tricks on my uncle," Harry spoke.

"As long as you don't use it for evil," Bruce laughed.

"Dinner's ready," Alfred spoke.

"…does everyone here know how to move like a ninja?" Harry sarcastically asked.

"Maybe it's the area," Dick responded with a smile as everyone sat down.

"This tastes great Alfred!" Harry complimented, not noticing that his table manners were atrocious compared to Bruce and Dick.

"Thank you, Master Harry," Alfred responded, "Also; may I suggest not talking with your mouth full as to not repulse your dinner mates?"

"Oh, sorry," Harry muttered, quickly swallowing, "You have to tell me how to make this, I bet Uncle Remus and my parents would love when I make it!"

"You can cook?" Bruce cut in, an eyebrow raised in skepticism.

"That was their response too," Harry retorted, "Blame my old guardians, they made me learn to cook for them when I was big enough to reach the stove."

"Who were your 'guardians' if you don't mind my asking," Bruce responded, seeing if he could track them down to have them charged with child abuse and endangerment.

Harry noted the way Bruce had asked was the same as when Harley and Ivy had found out and had wanted to cause bodily harm to the Dursleys, "They live very far away from here, so don't bother."

"You said that you'd make it, why doesn't anyone else cook?" Dick asked.

"Dad is only good for microwavable stuff, Uncle Remus a little more than that and mum…she can burn water, not that I've seen it happen with my own eyes yet but I know that she can turn a perfectly good cake into a meteorite!" Harry responded.

Dick nearly spat out his drink as he started to laugh, "How'd that happen?"

"We were trying to make a cake for my dad getting home from a business trip and mum had the bright idea that if you set something at a higher temperature that I'd bake faster, long story short, it doesn't and we ended up with something that could be used as a doorstopper!" Harry spoke, easily weaving bits of fiction in with the truth; at the end of the tale, he and Dick erupted into hysterical laughter with both Alfred and Bruce smiling in amusement.

"Hey Harry, you want to tell Bruce what you told me?" Ritchie whispered.

"The thing with Remus or the thing with me?" Harry responded.

"The thing with you…the other one you can tell after dinner, because that's really funny," Ritchie replied.

Harry grinned, happy that he would get to spread Remus' rather unfortunate yet hysterical tale later on before beginning on his story.

—**HJH—**

Morning dawned to Alfred waking up Dick and alerting him to the fact Harry was using him as a pillow and was attempting to eat his hair. After the initial embarrassment upon his awakening, Harry apologized about the hair eating, stating that he was dreaming of eating cotton candy and was acting accordingly and did not react at all to the fact that he had used Dick for a human cushion. Though he deliberately lagged to delay his leaving, Harry gathered his things and Dick accompanied him along with Alfred to drop him off.

Upon seeing Remus, Dick would not help but ask, "Is it true you're a werewolf?"

"Those are just myths," Remus lied, laughing nervously.

"Uncle Remus, they know that I'm a wizard so don't lie about yourself," Harry spoke.

"Um…why'd you tell them you're a wizard?" Remus asked, stalling.

"Because I had to explain why my hair went from purple to black after passing out when I nearly drowned in the pool," Harry explained.

"Oh," Remus responded before realizing what Harry had said, "You nearly drowned?!"

"You're more worried that I drowned than spilling my secret?" Harry remarked.

"I'm worried about both!" Remus answered, "If you had died…I'd rather not imagine what your parents would've done, and as for telling that you're a wizard…the fact there aren't any Aurors, or whatever the American equivalent is, around means that the government hasn't found out."

"It's not like I went on TV and told the whole world," Harry grumbled.

"There's also the possibility they might let it slip," Remus reasoned.

"Ritchie wouldn't do that, we pinky promised!" Harry yelled, glaring at Remus.

Remus held up his hands slightly in surrender, "Okay, don't blow a gasket, we don't want a repeat of the noodle incident…"

"That wasn't my fault!" Harry exclaimed.

"…'noodle incident'?" Dick asked, curious.

"Please don't ask about it…" Harry muttered, blushing with embarrassment.

Dick laughed at Harry's expression before he asked, "Can I visit your house sometime?"

"Um…that's not a good idea," Harry answered.

"Why not?" Dick retorted.

"We're…renovating, everything's a big mess so it's not really fit for guests," Harry lied.

Dick let out an exasperated sigh, "I'm seriously getting annoyed with all the excuses, are you homeless or live in a bad part of Gotham? If you are, just tell me already!"

"…I'd rather you not know…" Harry muttered, "It's really embarrassing…"

"Fine," Dick muttered, highly annoyed.

* * *

AN: Holy hell, I think this is my longest chapter to date!

Joker "Sugar works wonders for the imagination…and helps degrade one's sanity.

-shrugs- As long as it helps me write, I don't really care if I lose my mind. Now, who wants Jolt Cola?!

Harry "Head for the hills!"


	8. Platform Problems or Train Troubles

AN: It only took me a week! WOOT!  
Harry "What's wrong with you?"  
I'm sick, I can't think very well at the moment! -runs off-  
Joker "Our writer has lost her mind...let's celebrate!" -pulls out a cake-  
Harry "Where'd you get that?"  
Joker "Hammerspace."

* * *

Harry sighed in annoyance at the people around him, mainly because they were staring at him because of Jin; the animal in question let out a soft whine, causing Harry to scratch him behind the ears in a comforting gesture, "It's okay, boy, don't let them bug you." The two of them were without Remus since certain circumstances, mainly the fact that both Harley and Joker had been locked up a few days ago, forced him to stay in Gotham to take care of Bud, Lou, and Tonik as well as making sure that the Jokerz followed the rules, or 'guidelines' as some had called them, that Harry had laid down.

Searching the crowd, Harry sighed again, not spotting anyone who could be a wizard at all. He crouched down and quietly spoke to Jin, hoping that people would not notice him talking, "Think you can find anyone magical?"

Jin simply responded with a look that was the animal equivalent of person saying "I'm not useless" before sniffing the air and setting off slowly. Harry rolled his eyes a bit at his pet's attitude before following, pushing his cart ahead of himself.

Eventually Jin lead Harry to a crowd of people traveling through the station that were set apart from everyone else, for three reasons: one, it was a group a bit bigger than those already walking around, having a total of six people, and all but two were males, secondly, they all had vibrant red hair, and last, the woman who seemed to be in charge of the group had mentioned 'muggles' a few times. Jin had stopped right in front of the group, forcing them to stop as well.

"What' something like that doing here?" the smallest member of the group, a young girl asked.

"Be careful, Ginny," the woman, most likely the mother of the group, warned.

"He's mine, he's not dangerous," Harry stated, standing next to his pet and adding in a slight whisper, "I asked him to find me someone with magic because I'm kinda lost."

"First year at Hogwarts then?" the mother spoke up, before motioning to one of boys, "It's Ron's first year too."

"Yeah, my uncle dropped me off before he had to hurry and take care of some other things," Harry responded, "He was in such a rush he didn't tell me how to get onto the platform so we've been stuck here with Jin freaking out about all the people; never knew he was scared of crowds, hopefully he'll relax when he gets away from everything."

"Never heard of anyone bringing a hyena to Hogwarts before," Ron spoke, staring at the creature enviously.

"We're a special case, the two of us are bonded," Harry responded, before murmuring quietly to Jin to get him to calm down.

"Really?" the twins responded at the same time, moving closer to get a better look.

"Yeah," Harry responded, keeping a firm grip on Jin's collar when he attempted to run, "Can you guys tell me how to get to the platform?"

"It's simple really, you just have to go through the wall between platforms nine and ten," Mrs. Weasley explained, pointing out the appropriate location.

"You're telling me I have to run at a solid wall to get to the train?" Harry responded, disbelievingly, "You people are nuts!"

"What're you, scared?" Ron teased.

"Say that to me in private and I'll show you 'scared'," Harry threatened with a low growl to his voice.

"If you're nervous, it's best to do it at a bit of a run," the woman interrupted.

"I'd rather test it first," Harry responded before promptly grabbing Ron and physically throwing him at the indicated wall, shocking everyone except for the twins, who were struggling to not burst out laughing, at the disproportionate amount of strength that he displayed. Seeing that Ron actually went through the wall, Harry cocked an eyebrow, "I guess you were telling the truth.

"We like you, kiddo," the twins remarked, smiling widely at Harry, "We're Gred and Forge or Fred and George; you can call us either one."

"Are you the guys I've heard about, the pranksters of Hogwarts?" Harry asked, smiling to himself.

"That's us!" they boasted proudly while their mother frowned.

"This is going to be a fun year, I just love jokes and with you two, I won't feel so homesick," Harry laughed, "I'm Harry by the way."

"I'm Ginny!" the young girl spoke up.

"Percy," the remaining boy provided.

"Better get on that platform…can't believe I have to ran at a wall…oh well, it's not like I haven't done crazier things," Harry muttered under his breath as he turned to face the indicated wall and ran; Jin let out a soft noise of annoyance before chasing after his owner.

"He's quite odd," Percy remarked.

"We like him," Fred and George defended.

"Why'd he have purple hair and wearing a radish?" Ginny wondered.

—**HJH—**

Harry, Fred and George found a compartment where they could all sit together fairly quickly, leaving plenty of time for the pintsized criminal to look around the platform.

Harry ignored the slight looks he got from his hair as he wandered around a bit before he thought he saw someone familiar, 'That's impossible, I don't know any wizards here, save for Hermione, but her hair is brown …it can't be…' he ran up to the figure, just keeping out of their line of vision and was surprised when a pair of semi-familiar silver colored eyes locked with his, but the proof that it was someone he knew hung around their neck from a chain: one of his cards, placed in a cover to prevent any accidental injuries. "Luna?!"

"Oh, hello Harry, I didn't know you were a wizard," Luna smiled vacantly, "I'm starting Hogwarts this year, are you?"

"Uh…yeah; I'm glad that I'll know at few people there," Harry grinned widely, "It's great to see you again; how've you been since I last saw you, it was like two or three years ago, right?"

"I'm fine, other than my mom dying," Luna responded prior to noticing something, "You still have that earring I gave you."

"I'm a bit of a packrat, I don't toss anything away, especially if it's from a friend," Harry responding, blushing slightly before lamely adding, "And sorry about your mom."

"It's alright, you didn't do anything. I'm glad you kept my gift to you like I did," Luna smiled before casting a glance at Jin, "Is this animal yours?"

Harry patted Jin on the head, "Yep, his name is Jin…he's a hyena if you didn't know."

Luna couched down and held out a hand to Jin, "Nice to meet you."

Jin sniffed Luna's hand before giving her fingertips a slight lick and nudging for her to pet him, amazing Harry at the reaction, "Jin's never warmed up to anyone that quickly, guess there's something about you he likes."

"Animals just like me," Luna remarked, a slight smile on her face as she scratched Jin's head.

"You got anywhere to sit yet?" Harry asked, unable to stop himself from grinning at the sight.

"No, I just got here so I haven't looked yet," Luna answered.

"You can sit with us," Harry offered, "Hope you don't mind there's two others already riding with me.

"Thank you," Luna smiled, "Who's with us?"

"Fred and George Weasley," Harry replied, "They're pretty funny and maybe another friend if I can find her."

"Who is she?" Luna asked.

"Her name's Hermione, I met her when I got my school stuff," Harry answered before addressing Jin, "If she's here, do you think you can find her?" Jin responded with an apparent glare and a slight shake of his head, glancing at the people around him. Harry stared in disbelief for a moment, "…are you getting smarter or something?" Jin seemed to shrug before climbing onto the train to get back to their compartment.

"You better be careful or your minds will cross," Luna remarked, stepping onto the train.

"I think that's already started to happen," Harry muttered, following.

Harry quickly made introductions between Luna, Fred and George while the four of them, Harry counted five because he included Jin, got settled in and waited for the train to depart. As the train slowly left the station, Fred and George hung out the window temporarily to say goodbye to their mother and little sister, promising to send her a toilet seat for some odd reason, before coming back inside.

When the train picked up speed, Jin panicked and jumped onto Harry's lap.

"Jin, relax!" Harry ordered, grabbing the animal tightly and rubbing him behind the ears to get him to calm down, giving an apologetic smile to his companions, "Guess he doesn't like trains all that much."

Fred and George stared at Harry, or at least his forehead; they shared a brief look before one of them asked, "Where'd you get that scar?"

Harry realized that Jin had inadvertently revealed the scar in his panic; Harry rubbed at the mark, "I'd rather not talk about it."

They shared another look before asking, "What'd you say your last name was, Harry?"

"I didn't mention it," Harry answered, tensing up incase they tried anything; Jin was on guard from the emotions he felt coming off his owner.

"You're Harry Potter, aren't you," it was more a statement than a question.

"And if I am?" Harry retorted, secretively palming a card in his hand incase anything were to happen.

"We thought you were dead, the Wizarding World we mean," Fred and George responded.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked, keeping his weapon on hand but relaxing slightly.

"After you defeated You-Know-Who, you were sent somewhere that no knew about, not even the Ministry of Magic," Fred responded.

"If you're referring to the first eight years of my life, I lived in England," Harry stated.

"What about after that?"

"The States, not telling where," Harry answered, "The only reason I've told the two of you anything is because I've heard of your reputations as pranksters…and because I find the two of you interesting."

"That fits with you, Harry," Luna remarked, idly patting Jin on the head to calm him.

"Um, excuse me, but have any of you seen a toad?" a nervous voice asked.

Harry looked up to see a round-faced boy nearly in tears, "Sorry pal, haven't seen one."

"Well, if you see him…" the boy made to leave when Harry stopped him.

"We can look for him, Jin's good at tracking stuff," Harry spoke, patting the bored creature on the head.

"A…a hyena, why do you have a hyena?" the boy fearfully asked.

"We're bonded, and don't worry, he's harmless as long as you don't make _me_ mad," Harry responded with a soothing tone as he led the boy out of the compartment.

"I've never seen one up close before," the boy remarked, "Went to a zoo once and saw them there…he's smaller than the ones I saw."

"Most likely those were adults, Jin's just a baby in comparison since he's a little over a year old," Harry answered, "By the way, the name's Harry, what's yours?"

"I'm Neville Longbottom," the other boy provided.

"…'Longbottom'? Your last name is 'Longbottom'?!" Harry lapsed into hysterical laughter.

"What's yours then?" Neville retorted.

"It's 'Potter'; pretty normal, don't you think?" Harry responded.

"You mean, you're Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived?!" Neville proclaimed, disbelievingly.

"…the what?" Harry arched an eyebrow.

"The Boy-Who-Lived! You-Know-Who set out to kill you but you survived and he disappeared!" Neville explained.

"Who the heck is You-Know…do you mean Voldemort?" Harry responded, noting that Neville flinched at the name, "What's wrong?"

"P-people don't say his name," Neville clarified.

"Why? It's not like it'll bring him back," Harry sighed, "Seriously, being afraid of just his name makes you terrified of the thing itself."

"…you're a really brave person, not surprising because both your parents were in Gryffindor," Neville spoke with a hint of awe and envy in his voice.

"Just because they were in Gryffindor doesn't mean I will," Harry responded, "I don't really care what house I'm in, as long as it fits me. What about you?"

"My gran wants me to be in Gryffindor, like my parents were," Neville answered.

"That's dumb," Harry retorted, "It's better to be in a house that's right for you than in a house that someone else wants you to be in."

"I see…" Neville muttered lamely.

Jin then broke the strained silence bet letting out a slight noise, coming up to Harry carrying something in his mouth.

"What do you got there?" Harry asked with an odd smile.

"Trevor!" Neville exclaimed, reaching his pet but quickly backing off when Jin growled threateningly.

"Jin, drop it," Harry ordered. Jin glanced up at his owner before dropping the toad and making an odd hacking noise, causing Harry to raise an eyebrow in amusement, "What's that about?"

"Most likely Trevor peed in his mouth," Neville provided, picking up his pet and making sure he was fine, "That's really the only defense he has.

Harry took a moment for the information to skin in before erupting into hysterical laughter.

Jin glared for a moment before biting Harry's leg, "Sorry, Jin, but it was too funny not to laugh at!" Jin growled angrily and shook Harry's leg a moment before letting go, "I'll give you a treat later on to make for it, okay?" Jin gave a slight grunt before walking back to the compartment.

During the short walk back, Neville was still amazed at who Harry was and also the fact he was completely unfazed when he was bit in the leg. 'What else can he do? …if he's as powerful magically as his parents are…he wouldn't want to hang around with a near Squib like I am…'

"What's wrong with you?" Harry asked, intruding on Neville's thoughts.

"Uh, nothing," Neville lied, "Just glad to have Trevor back.

Harry stared at Neville for a moment, "Nev, I know that you want to keep something to yourself but don't lie to me, I don't like it when my friends do that. If you want to keep something secret, just say so…and if you're worried I won't be your friend if you're not in a different house; don't. I like people for who they are not where they come from."

"Uh…okay," Neville responded, surprised, as Harry reentered the compartment. 'He considers me a friend?'

"There you are!" a voice exclaimed.

Harry saw that Hermione had shown up sometime while he was gone and smiled widely in greeting, "Oh, hi there 'Mione, glad to finally run into you. You've met my other friends so far?"

"Yes, they're…interesting," Hermione spoke hesitantly.

"You got that right!" Harry laughed, settling in and motioning for Neville to come in as well.

"Uh…is anyone up for some Exploding Snap?" Neville offered, pulling out a deck of cards.

A wide grin stretched across Harry's face, "I'm up for anything with the word 'explode' in it!"

"Your love of explosions, has it made you do anything in the wizarding world yet?" Fred asked as the cards were being dealt out.

"Yep, my first day in the wizarding world I blew up something," Harry nonchalantly answered.

"What'd you do?" Neville responded, shocked.

"Blew up Zonko's," Harry answered casually, putting a card down.

Silence reigned for a moment before Fred and George burst out, "You were the one that blew up Zonko's?! How'd you do it?"

"I messed around with a few things, mixed some stuff together…and might've _accidentally_ put some of my magic into what I was making," Harry responded.

"But you shouldn't have anymore bursts of accidental magic now, so I don't think it'll happen again," Hermione reasoned, setting down a card.

"Don't count on it," Harry retorted, "My magic is kinda weird…it's really chaotic and doesn't like to be restrained a lot of the time."

"How's that possible?" Hermione wondered.

"Heck if I know, but as long as I can do stuff like this," Harry held up a finger and a small green flame appeared before going out, "I don't really care."

"How'd you do that?" Neville asked.

"Dunno, I've been able to do stuff like that for years, though," Harry responded, surprised when the pile of cards suddenly exploded, "That is so cool! I'm getting me some of these when I get the chance!"

Fred and George declined to participate in the next game and exited the compartment, mentioning that their friend had a tarantula that they wanted to see. After leaving the noise and walking a bit down the hallway did they speak, "Do you think we should…take Harry under our wing? Teach him the finer points in pranking?" "My dear brother, you read my mind." "Don't I always?"


	9. Arrival and Sorting

AN: Several portions of this chap, mainly the sorting and the events before and after that, have been taken directly from the book and I do not claim original ownership to them. I'm a simple writer who does this just for kicks.  
Harry "You should be a real writer if you're this good with someone else's stuff."  
"When I have the money and my life is a bit more stable, maybe."  
Joker "And review this story you ingrates!"  
"JOKER!"

* * *

About half way through the journey, by Fred and George's estimation, Jin got onto his feet and growled at the door.

"What's wrong, boy?" Harry asked, rubbing his friend on the head to calm him down.

Harry's question was answered when the door to the compartment opened to reveal three people, two of which could be seen as human-sized gorillas while the third was normal sized.

The third person glanced about the compartment, staring dismissively at everyone before speaking, "I heard Harry Potter was in here."

"Who wants to know, blondie?" Harry remarked with a low growl which Jin copied.

"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy; I'm here to make sure that Harry Potter doesn't make friends with the wrong sort of crowd." the blonde remarked before motioning to the two beside him, "This is Crabbe and Goyle."

"A kid with bodyguards, you must be rich," Harry remarked in a condescending tone.

"You'd do well to know your place," Malfoy sneered.

"And here I thought you wanted to be my friend," Harry retorted, brushing his hair aside slightly to show his scar, enjoying the look of shock he got out of the annoying boy. He then jumped up, grabbed onto the luggage racks on either side of the doorway, and kicked the two thugs back out into the hallway. Grinning widely, he dropped back down and punched Malfoy in the face, forcing him out as well and shutting the door quickly.

"That was amazing…" Neville spoke.

"That was nothing," Harry responded flippantly, "I do stuff like that all the time back home, sometimes things a lot tougher."

"You don't understand you just punched out Draco Malfoy!" Neville tried to reason.

"Who cares what his name is," Harry retorted.

"The Malfoys are an old wizarding family that is proud to think their entire family has only Pure Bloods," Fred spoke.

"That kid's father, Lucius, was a Death Eater during the war, You-Know-Who's followers," George picked up, "When you defeated You-Know-Who, he started saying that he was under a spell the entire time and didn't know what he was doing."

"The only reason he wasn't locked up is because he has connections and is rich," Fred ended.

"So that's the other side of rich people…makes me glad Ritchie is so down to earth," Harry remarked.

"Who's that?" Luna asked.

"Ritchie is my best friend back home, he's really rich but acts completely normal," Harry explained, "But that might be due to him being adopted into that, but he's still a nice person."

"Where do you live again?" Hermione asked.

"The States, you have to guess where," Harry stuck out his tongue in jest.

Hermione smiled to herself at the challenge, "I'll figure it out."

"I don't doubt that you will," Harry laughed when the door opened again, revealing Ron.

"There you two are!" Ron spoke, staring at his brothers.

"What do you want, Ronnie?" Fred and George teased, but were a bit annoyed.

"I'm just looking for a place to sit, everywhere else is full," Ron retorted.

"Just keep quiet, all the noise is getting Jin riled up again and giving me a headache," Harry spoke, rubbing his temples.

Ron let himself in and sat down, glancing at Jin enviously before looking to his over; his eyes widened comically before exclaiming, "…You're Harry Potter!"

"What gave you that idea?" Harry retorted, regretting that he let the young redhead stay.

"Your scar, of course!" Ron pointed out, getting a bit too close to Harry while doing so, "Where've you been these years, everyone's been looking for you."

"If I wanted to be found, they would've found me. I like my privacy," Harry responded, trying to give Ron a hint but the boy was dense.

"I bet we'll be best mates," Ron boasted, completely oblivious.

"What if I don't want to be your friend?" Harry spoke, glaring while Jin was growling at the young redhead's pocket.

"Why wouldn't you? We'll both be in Gryffindor and my family is a part of the Light," Ron bragged.

"Those are your only reasons to be my friend?" Harry responded angrily and not noticing that he was sparking, "If that's your idea of friendship, get the heck out of my face!" He pulled Ron to his feet and proceeded to kick him in the crotch and then gave a roundhouse kick to the head, the force of the second blow sending Ron back out into the hallway, before Harry slammed the door shut.

"Damn you…Harry Potter!" Ron muttered outside, his voice a higher pitch causing Fred and George to burst into hysterical laughter.

"You're a violent person," Luna remarked with an odd smile.

"You should see me when I really let loose," Harry responded before proceeding to do pull-ups with the luggage rack.

—**HJH—**

"Enjoy the ride up to the castle," Fred and George remarked, "And Hagrid is a nice guy, even if he's a bit scary." "And be careful for the giant squid!"

Harry, Hermione, Luna, and Neville watched the older students leave via carriages pulled by nothing.

"Who in the world is Hagrid?" Harry muttered.

"I'm more worried about the giant squid," Neville responded.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" a booming voice spoke out, drawing attention to its owner, a large man at least twice as tall as normal person and a few times wider, "C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind ye step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

"I guess that answers your question," Hermione remarked, following the crowd after the large man.

"What the heck is he, anyways? The only person I've seen close to that size is Uncle Croc," Harry muttered.

"He might be a half-giant," Neville offered.

"That's unique," Harry responded.

"But not completely rare," Neville replied.

As they followed the large man, Harry stopped dead in his tracks at the sight in front of him. "A lake…we have to cross a lake?!" He exclaimed, annoyed and a little bit scared of the trip. 'Just my luck, I have a fear of water because of that botched swimming lesson!'

"At least we don't have to swim it," Luna remarked, causing Harry to flinch violently.

As they approached the boats, Jin started to whimper before having the equivalent of a panic attack.

"Jin, cool it!" Harry yelled, before biting the creature behind the ear as a further warning.

"What's goin' on here?" Hagrid asked, walking up.

"Jin's afraid to get into the boat," Harry answered, still trying to get the animal to calm down, "You should've waited with the other pets instead of following me." 'Are you pretending to be scared so no one notices I am?'

"He's an odd creature," Hagrid spoke, reaching down to get a better look.

Jin reacted to the perceived threat and lashed out, sinking his teeth into the half-giant's hand.

"Um…sorry about that," Harry remarked, trying to pull Jin off.

"S'okay, when an animal's scared, it fights," Hagrid responded before petting, with a gentleness that seemed impossible for his size, Jin enough to get him to let go. Jin let out a confused sound, glancing at Harry for confirmation which he gave by gently rubbing the animal's ears. Jin then licked the small wounds on Hagrid's hand in apology.

"Ride with Hagrid and don't cause him any problems," Harry ordered, Jin emitted a soft grunt in understanding before jumping into the boat, "Good boy."

"Smart creature," Hagrid remarked.

"You have no idea," Harry responded, getting into another boat where he was joined by Luna, Hermione, and, to his chagrin, Ron who had shoved Neville out of the way, "We'll catch up later, Nev."

"Everybody settled it?" Hagrid called out, and was met but several people responding, "Right then – FORWARD!"

The boats silently made their way across the lake, the people inside them not so much.

"You're very dense you know that?" Harry remarked, annoyed that Ron was bothering him.

"We got off to the wrong foot back on the train, so let's start over?" Ron offered, holding out his hand.

"You're an annoying, stubborn idiot," Harry muttered before kicking Ron out of the boat and into the water.

"Why'd you do that?!" Hermione screamed, drawing attention to them.

"I don't like him," Harry responded, surprised when Ron was suddenly tossed back into their boat; he looked up in time to see a long tentacle slip into the water, "I guess the twins were telling the truth about the giant squid."

Ron did a very good impression of a landlocked fish, after being unceremoniously dumped into the boat.

"Close your mouth or you'll catch flies," Harry remarked, smirking and turning to face forward and ignoring the glare directed at his back.

"Head's down!" Hagrid called out, as the boats reached a cliff face and went through a wide opening that was hidden by a curtain of ivy. The boats drifted down a long tunnel, which seemed to be under the castle, until they reached an underground harbor. Everyone climbed out of their boat, a few people slipping slightly on the wet rocks. They followed the light of Hagrid's lantern through a passageway in one of the rocks, coming out onto the smooth, damp grass in the shadow of the castle. They walked up the steps and, after making sure that everyone was still with him, Hagrid knocked on the door.

The door opened to reveal, to Harry at least, a familiar person.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid spoke.

"Thank you Hagrid, I'll take them from here," she spoke, pulling the door open and gesturing for the group to come inside. The entrance hall was big enough that a someone's house could fit easily inside it; the stone walls were lit by burning torches, the ceiling was high enough that it could not be made out, and there was a marble staircase that led up to the upper floors.

The group followed Professor McGonagall across the stone floor, passing by a doorway to their right where the drone of hundreds of voices could be heard on the other side. They were led into smaller chamber just off the hall, where they crowded in, standing a bit closer together than they would have done.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall, "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and speed free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are here at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rule breaking will cause you to lose them. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his ear, and on Harry's purple hair which caused him to completely stand out.

"I shall return when we are ready for you, please wait quietly, "said Professor McGonagall as she exited.

"Was there really a need for dramatics?" Harry laughed, breaking the tension in the room.

"Must be a tradition," Luna responded while Hermione was muttering all the spells she knew under her breath.

"Relax, 'Mione, I doubt they'd make us perform spells before our first class," Harry remarked; he proceeded to whistle an odd tune when several people behind him screamed. He immediately drew out a card and was set to throw it when he saw what had caused the reaction; about twenty ghosts had just come through the back wall.

The pearly-white and near transparent group glided through the air, ignoring the first years below them, and it seemed that they were arguing about something; what appeared to be a fat monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance-"

"My dear Friar, we've given Peeves all the chances he deserves. He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost — I say, what are you all doing here?" A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the young group below.

The new students simply stared, no one answered.

"New students!" the Fat Friar answered, smiling down at them, "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" the Friar beamed, "My old house, you know."

"Move along now, the Sorting Ceremony's about to start," Professor McGonagall had returned.

One by one, the ghosts floated through a wall, a few hanging back a bit to dole out a few words of encouragement before making their way.

"Now form a line and follow me," Professor McGonagall told the first years.

When everyone had lined up, they were lead out of the room, across the hall and through the double doors into the Great Hall.

Harry could not help but let out a low whistle at what he saw, the hall was lit by thousands and thousands of candles floating in midair above four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. The glittering of gold caught Harry's eye and made him notice that the tables were lined with golden plates, utensils, and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers, which is where Professor McGonagall led the first years.

At the staff table, Harry recognized two of the faces and that they were staring right at him either out of recognition or because of his hair. To avoid their gazes, he looked up and was met with the sky above him. "Neat."

"The ceiling's been bewitched to look like sky outside. I read about it in _Hogwarts, A History_," Hermione whispered.

"Like I said before, neat," Harry remarked before looking back down and noticing a stool on which a tattered wizard's hat had been placed. Harry arched an eyebrow in confusion at it when he noted that everyone else in the hall was just staring at it. 'Okay, wizards are seriously mental.'

For a few seconds, silence reigned. Then the hat twitched. A rip opened near the brim opened wide, like a mouth, and the hat began to sing:

**(You want the Sorting Hat song? Go read the book; I'm not in a good mood to write it in.)**

"We have to try on a hat?" Harry muttered incredulously.

"It's a tradition," Luna responded.

"How come you didn't mention it earlier?" Hermione inquired.

Luna smiled and simply answered, "You didn't ask."

"She has a point," Neville remarked.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment, "When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and put on the hat to be sorted. Abbot, Hannah!"

Harry tuned out the names but paid attention enough attention to which table was for which house; Gryffindor was the table far to the left, Ravenclaw was right next to it, Hufflepuff was to his right, and Slytherin was on the far right.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Harry could not help but smile as Hermione nearly ran to the stool and eagerly jammed the hat on her head.

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat shouted.

Harry grinned as he watched her walk over to the table. 'If she's as smart as I think, that's perfect for her.'

"Longbottom, Neville!" Harry squeezed Neville's shoulder in reassurance before the nervous boy walked up, nearly tripping over his robes. As he waited for the hat to be placed on his head, Neville locked gazes with Harry who simply gave him a grin as encouragement.

The hat debated for a long time on where to place Neville, but when it finally shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!", he ran off to his table, still wearing the hat and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to another student.

"Lovegood, Luna!"

Harry chuckled as he watched Luna skipped up to the stool and sat down with a half smile.

The hat debated for about half a minute before proclaiming, "RAVENCLAW!"

Luna hopped off the stool and made her way to the right table, which welcomed her warmly and sat next to Hermione.

"Malfoy, Draco!"

The hat took no time in placing Malfoy in Slytherin, but as he strutted off to the green decorated table, Harry could not help but covertly stick his foot forward enough so that Malfoy would trip and fall on his face. Harry had to restrain himself slightly as to not laugh louder than everyone else at the sight of the mortified boy picking himself up.

After composing himself, Harry once again tuned out the people being called up until:

"Potter, Harry!"

As Harry stepped forward, he was annoyed by the outbreak of whispers across the hall.

"_Potter_, did she say?" "_The_ Harry Potter?" "Why's his hair purple?"

'Am I going to hear that everyday?' Harry sighed as he sat down on the stool. As he waited for the hat to be placed onto his head, a loud crash was heard on the other side of the doors, startling quite a few people. One of the doors suddenly opened and a small form ran into the room, closely followed by a hyena which was followed by a ragged looking man.

The animals ran around the hall a few times, with the man attempting to catch the smaller creature, before Harry blurted out, "Jin, what the heck are you chasing?"

Upon hearing his name being called, Jin looked up and saw Harry. Letting out a happy sound, Jin ran full tilt towards Harry and tackled him, knocking him off the stool.

"Down boy, down!" Harry yelled through his laughter as Jin licked his face and ears.

"Keep that mutt away from Mrs. Norris!" Filch ordered, catching the smaller animal, apparently a cat, and cradling the frightened feline to his chest.

"Jin's not a mutt, he's a hyena and technically they're in the same family as cats so you can't call him a bad dog name," Harry corrected before sticking out his tongue.

"Mr. Potter," McGonagall spoke.

"Oh, sorry," Harry responded, righting the stool and sitting on it, a happy Jin sitting next to him. He got one last glimpse of everyone staring at him, to his great annoyance, before the Hat was placed on his head and slipped over his eyes.

'_Quite the interesting mind for a child,' _the Sorting Hat murmured, _'Don't worry, I'm only talking to you; no one else knows what I'm saying.'_

'That's a bit of a relief,' Harry responded sarcastically, '…wait, does this mean you're in my head?!'

'_Yes I am, that's why I commented about your mind…as warped as it may be,' _the Sorting Hat replied.

'If you tell anyone about what I do back home I'll track you down, shred you to pieces, and feed you to Jin,' Harry thought.

'_Fear not, I won't tell what you do back home,'_ the Sorting Hat vowed, _'…although what you did to that man with the turkey baster and egg beater a few months ago is highly disturbing…'_

'You'd better not tell my secret…and _that_ incident isn't the weirdest thing I've done or seen,' Harry replied, 'You should see what I can do with a handful of thumbtacks and a cheese grater.'

'_I'm slightly terrified of what you'll do to this school, but I have a job to perform…you are quite difficult to place, Mr. Quinzel…you are incredibly brave for someone your age, Gryffindor material no doubt; you are astoundingly cunning, perfect for Slytherin; Ravenclaw would be excellent for someone as smart as you; and Hufflepuff is ideal for someone as loyal as you are._

'_But as well as you would fit in with all of the houses, you also have traits that would alienate you: Gryffindor would shun you for your…home life or at least the fact you willingly commit crimes and cause serious harm to others, Slytherin would try to harm you because of what you had no control over, Ravenclaw might be wary of you using your knowledge for less than noble purposes, and Hufflepuff would be anywhere from slightly intimidated to right-out terrified of how you act…'_ the Sorting Hat informed.

'Story of my life, I'm both perfect and totally wrong for both sides of my life back home…and thank you for referring to me by my real last name,' Harry responded.

'_You are welcome…your escapades here will remind this school of the days of the Marauders and definitely give the Weasley twins a run for their money,' _the Hat commented, _'I hope there is still something left of this place when you leave…'_

'You're really making me nervous here…will you make up your mind already?!'

'_You have your birth mother's temper, no doubt about that,' _the Sorting Hat remarked, _'But I think we've left everyone quite anxious as to where you'll be.'_

'So you've finally decided?' Harry wondered.

'_Yes,'_ the Hat responded, _'Good luck, Mr. Quinzel.'_

'I make my own luck," Harry smirked as the Hat prepared to announce which house he was in.

* * *

AN: "I'm evil, I know" :D

Harry, Joker, and Harley "You got that right!"


	10. Chapter 10

AN: If anyone doesn't like what house I put Harry in...don't hurt me! -runs for her life-  
Harley: "Anyone messes with the writer, they'll get a fish upside the head!" -waves around a big fish-  
Thanks for the save...where the heck do you keep that thing?  
Harley: "...I don't really know..."  
Joker: "Hammerspace, look it up!"  
-sigh- I need to see a shrink, I'm actually having a conversation with fictional characters...also, sorry for the wait! BTW, I'm looking for suggestions to alternate book/title names, if you got one let me know. :)

* * *

"_RAVENCLAW!"_ the Sorting Hat announced, causing the table to Harry's right, decorated with blue and bronze, to burst into applause and motion Harry over to them.

Harry took off the Hat and handed it back to Professor McGonagall before making his way over to the table, Jin at his heels.

"Miss me?" Harry joked, sitting with Hermione and Luna as Jin sidled next to him. He fixed his pet with a fierce gaze and ordered, "Don't jump on the table; we don't want a repeat of what happened at Thanksgiving Dinner."

"What happened then?" Hermione asked.

"You _really_ don't wanna know," Harry responded, a grimace crossing his face. He turned his attention to the last people being sorted, noticing that it was Ron's turn. 'Wonder where he's going to end up.'

_"GRYFFINDOR!"_

'Not surprising.' Harry thought as he watched Ron being welcomed by Percy and be pestered by Fred and George.

After the last student was sorted, McGonagall rolled up the scroll and took the Sorting Hat away; idle chatter started up as she put the hat away somewhere and returned to the table.

When McGonagall sat down, Dumbledore stood up and was beaming at the students, his arms open wide; as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome!" he spoke, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

"Is he insane?" Harry asked to no one in particular as everyone clapped and cheered.

"Insane?" an older year spoke, "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he's a bit mad, yes. Want some potatoes?"

Harry noticed the spread of food suddenly around him, "Holy Hermes! Where'd this come from?!"

"The kitchens, of course," Luna answered, grabbing some Yorkshire pudding.

"Okay…" Harry remarked when Jin suddenly tried to jump onto the table to get some food. He grabbed his pet by the collar and yanked him away, growling in warning, "We don't jump on tables."

"I've never—" someone started.

"We're bonded, and pass that along will you? I'm tired of having to explain it over and over," Harry interrupted, "Oh, and pass the chicken."

"What does he like to eat?" an older student asked.

"Mainly raw meat or whatever I don't want to eat," Harry answered before noting that several of the teachers were handing coins to a diminutive man, "What're they doing?"

"My guess, Professor Flitwick won a bet," a student said before introducing herself, "Penelope Clearwater."

"What kind of bet?" Harry inquired.

"Most likely the Professors bet on what house you'd end up in," Penelope remarked, "I'm guessing the odds were in favor for you getting in Gryffindor, which is why McGonagall looks a bit disappointed."

"Why'd the odds be for Gryffindor?" Harry responded, half-guessing what the answer could be while starting on some chicken and giving a Jin a piece.

"Both your parents were in that house," someone else answered.

"I may be their son, but I'm not them," Harry retorted, finishing his piece and popping a cherry tomato into his mouth, "I'll be in whatever house is good for me, not one somebody else wants me in."

"That's smart thinking," someone commented.

"Why else do you think the hat put me here?" Harry joked.

"You have a point," a girl sitting across from him answered, "Cho Chang by the way."

"By the way, who's the guy with the big nose and greasy hair?" Harry asked, recognizing the man as one of the two that tried to kidnap him years ago and not liking the glare he was receiving.

"That's Professor Snape, he teaches Potions," an older student answered, "But everyone knows that he'd rather have Quirrell's job, that's him with the turban, Defense Against the Dark Arts. He knows an awful lot about Dark Arts, Snape."

"But why is he glaring at me…I can think of one reason, but that wouldn't be enough for that level of glare," Harry retorted.

"Snape doesn't like any other house other than his own, Slytherin," Penelope answered, "But maybe there's another reason…"

Harry looked back to Snape, sticking out his tongue to annoy the man before turning his attention to Quirrell and immediately got a bad vibe off him, and that was before a sharp, hot pain shot across his scar. "Ow!"

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, looking worried.

"It's nothing," Harry remarked as Jin licked at the scar in comfort, causing him to smile at the soothing gesture before giving Jin another piece of meat and scratching his ears, "I guess since mum or anyone else is here, you'll have to be the person to cheer me up."

"You'll at least be remembered for having an unusual pet," a ghost spoke.

Harry looked up to see a female ghost floating near him, Jin attempted to sniff her but let out a confused sound.

"I think I'll be remembered for being the Boy-Who-Lived or, my own spin on it, the Boy-Who-Didn't-Die!" Harry responded before asking, "What're you called, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Just call me the Grey Lady," the ghost answered, looking a bit wistfully at the food.

"You can't eat?" Harry asked, noting the look.

"No, haven't been able to since I died," the Grey Lady sighed.

"How'd you die?" Harry pressed.

"Harry," Hermione scolded, "That's rude."

"I'm known for being very blunt, 'Mione," Harry retorted.

The Grey Lady laughed, "It's been a while since anyone asked me that, but I simply made a very big mistake." She glanced towards the Slytherin table, mainly at its own ghost the Bloody Baron.

"He have anything to do with it?" Harry asked, noting her gaze.

"Uh…well…" the Grey Lady stammered.

"I didn't know a ghost could blush!" Harry laughed, seeing that her cheeks had become a lighter shade.

Eventually the main dishes faded away from the plates to be replaced by a multitude of desserts, though Harry could only identify a few of them; after a moment he decided to either Hermione or Luna what was what before trying anything, making faces at some of the odd names he heard.

Once the desserts were gone too, Dumbledore rose to his feet and the hall fell silent. As he began to speak Harry tuned him out, starting to feel a bit sleepy from all the food until something caught his attention. "…the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to anyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

"Makes you wonder what's hidden up there," Harry remarked, drawing a few looks.

"Don't even think about going up to find out," Hermione warned.

"Sorry about that, thing of habit, but I sorta remembered something my Aunt Selina always said 'If it's worth protecting it's…really valuable…'," Harry responded, at the last minute changing what the phrase actually was to not draw more suspicion to himself. 'Note to self, don't mention that the phrase is supposed to end 'it's worth stealing'.'

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore.

Harry noticed that the smiles on the teachers became oddly fixed and heard the groans of the other students around him, "Is it that bad?"

"You have no idea," Penelope answered, head in her hands.

"How bad can it be?" Hermione responded.

A minute or so later, the song was over with Fred and George finishing at the pace of a funeral march.

"God that sucked," Harry muttered before turning to Jin, "and I can't believe you sang along with it."

"I thought it was interesting, especially with Jin joining in," Luna spoke causing people to stare at her in disbelief as everyone started to exit the hall.

"And I thought I was odd," Harry joked as he followed the rest of the group.

"Our dorm is located on the west side of the school," the prefect instructed to the first years while most of the older years went on ahead, "If you get lost just ask another student, a teacher, or the ghosts and paintings to point you in the right direction, but not Peeves."

"Who's that?" a girl next to Harry asked.

The question was quickly answered by the poltergeist himself when he slammed a wastebasket onto the head of the prefect, yelling, "Hello ickle Firsties!" At the back of the group, Harry laughed at the sight, drawing Peeves' attention to him. "A Firstie that understands my humor!"

"I just like seeing people get hurt," Harry remarked with a grin, "You want funny, let me show you what I know."

"Leave, Peeves, or I'll get the Bloody Baron!" the prefect remarked after yanking the wastebasket off.

Peeves responded by blowing a raspberry and floating off.

"Well, that was amusing," Harry commented, drawing odd looks from the older years that had stayed with the group, "What?"

"Peeves doesn't like anyone," Penelope answered.

"My family says I can be very charming," Harry responded.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted, asking Peeves for directions will only make your situation worse," the prefect spoke, pulling out bits of trash stuck in his hair.

After composing himself somewhat, the prefect continued to lead the way, warning that the staircases tended to move and some had trick steps that you had to jump over. Eventually the journey ended up in front of door with a bronze, eagle-shaped doorknocker.

"Unlike the other houses, which use passwords, our common room opens via the answering of a riddle," the prefect spoke, causing Harry to grin.

"What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night?" the door knocker asked.

"Man," Harry spoke without hesitation, drawing a few looks when the door did open, he simply met the stares with a dismissive shrug, "I've heard harder ones from my uncle."

"Like what?" Hermione asked.

"Um…what's worse than being dead?" Harry responded off the top of his head.

"That's an interesting one," Luna spoke, "Is there more than one answer?"

"I guess; my Uncle said one of them was 'being forgotten' but he's a bit odd like that…even compared to the rest of my family," Harry answered before taking a better look at the common room, briefly glancing over the shelves of books and noting the very relaxing atmosphere. 'If it were a bit more chaotic in here, I'd be reminded of one of Uncle Riddles' hideouts.'

"Boy's rooms are through here, the girl's are through this one," the prefect spoke directing the way.

"Who's the statue of?" Harry asked as people either made their way up to the dorms or hung around in the common room catching up with their friends. For some reason, he was drawn to the white-marble statue of a woman wearing a sort of crown.

"That's one the founders of Hogwarts, Rowena Ravenclaw," the Grey Lady spoke, "Her motto was 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure'."

Harry glanced at the ghost and back to the statue several times, "You two look kinda similar."

The Grey Lady was quiet for a moment before whispering, "She was my mother…"

"Why're you hanging around here then?" Harry asked.

"Like I said, I made a mistake…" the Grey Lady answered before floating away.

"Your family is right, you are very charming," Luna teased before making her way up the girls' side.

"Being too charming will get you into trouble, though," Hermione advised, picking up on what Luna had said.

"Someone has to make sure I don't do anything incredibly stupid…but that never really works anyways," Harry laughed as he headed up to his dorm room. Entering the room Harry noted that his trunk was already there and Jin had taken to lying down on his bed already. The animal picked up his head and stared at his owner for a moment before yawning widely and settling back down, causing Harry to grin at the uneasy looks the simple action caused among his dorm mates.

Harry changed into some pajamas quickly and hopped into bed, nudging Jin to lay closer to the headboard so as to have more room.

"Word of warning guys, knock before you try to wake me," Harry informed with a smirk as he closed the curtains around him.

The other boys in the room glanced at each other warily.

"Do you think he was joking?"

"Hard to tell…"

After making sure the curtains were secured tightly around the bed, Harry laid back and pulled out a small mirror, glad that Remus had found another way to communicate with home, "Mum, dad, anyone there?"

"Harry, how are you?" Harley yelled, causing Harry to wince.

"Keep it down, mum," Harry responded with a smile, "I'm doing fine so far, I've made a few new friends already."

"That's great!" Harley beamed.

"Why are you talking to a mirror?" Joker's voice spoke somewhere over Harley's shoulder.

"I'm talking to Harry," Harley retorted.

Harry chuckled when Harley suddenly disappeared and his father showed up, "Hi there, dad."

"How ya doing, kiddo?" Joker asked.

"Fine, I've met a couple of the schools resident pranksters," Harry responded, a wide grin crossing his face, "I think I can teach them a few tricks of my own, cause a little chaos here."

"That's my boy!" Joker beamed before he was pushed out of the way by Harley.

"So, everything's good, no problems?" Harley inquired.

"I'm fine, like I said, but can you send me some _special_ hair dye? I need a bit of a change," Harry responded with a scheming tone.

"…meaning what exactly?" Harley responded.

"He wants to blow something up!" Joker's voice answered.

"Wait at least a week before you do that," Remus' exasperated voice spoke, "By the way, what house you'd get into?"

"I'm a Raven," Harry responded, "And at least send some bottles with some stuff in them so I can keep up the lie that I dye my hair."

"Why'd you want to lie about that?" Harley inquired.

"It's a rare ability, remember? I think it's better to keep something like that to myself at least," Harry reasoned.

"That sort of thinking is why you're in Ravenclaw," Remus spoke, "Though I had hoped you'd have been in Gryffindor…"

"I'm my own person, remember that," Harry retorted.

They talked for a little while longer before Harry bid goodnight and stowed away the mirror in a safe place; he laid back and had a gentle grip on Jin's fur as he drifted off into dreams of multicolored explosions.


	11. First Week

AN: I've created a forum for readers of this story because of an idea a friend had. Use it to debate what you guys think I'll do with this crazy series and what you think of everything so far. I guess I should also explain the whole Luna thing. I decided to age her up a bit so she'd be in the same year as the rest of the group because, admittedly, she's one of my favorite characters and she's such a kick to write.  
Joker: "I thought you did that for other reasons."  
Like what?  
Harley: "To have someone crazy around so Harry doesn't get too homesick."  
He has Jin…  
Harry: "Jin can't talk!"  
Jin: _"Just because you don't listen to me, doesn't mean I can't talk!"_  
Everyone: "Holy shit!"

* * *

It was quickly learned by everyone in his dorm room, and filtered out to the rest of the house, that Harry was not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. The day after the welcoming feast resulting in a few torn sets of pajamas by those who attempted to wake up the _slightly_ insane boy as well as an amused Harry and happy Jin, who had fended off the 'intruders'.

"You guys should've listened to what I said last night and knocked," Harry laughed at his roommates when they remembered that Jin sleeps in the same bed as Harry as a protective and comforting measure.

"S-sure," a boy, Terry Boot, stammered before he and the other boys quickly changed and left the room.

As the week went on it was also quickly learned that if you wanted to wake up Harry in the mornings without being torn to shreds, you asked either Hermione Granger or Luna Lovegood to do the job.

**Monday**

"That's him right there!"

"Yeah, can you see his face?"

"What about his scar?"

"He's the one with the purple hair, right?"

Harry grew quickly annoyed at the number of people staring at him and whispering, some quiet some not, which had him as the main topic. People who were lined up outside classrooms stood on tiptoes to get a better look at him and some people even double back to get a second glance.

"It's a magical school, how odd is it to have someone walking around with purple hair?!" Harry muttered under his breath as he heard someone else comment on his look, "As soon as I get that dye…"

"You dye your hair?" Hermione asked.

"Does this look natural?" Harry remarked while holding up a purple lock, "Also, I want to show off my house pride."

"But dying your hair?" Hermione responded, "Isn't that a bit much?"

"A bit much would be me walking around with my robes turned to my house colors with the animal tattooed on me somewhere," Harry laughed.

"What about wearing a very realistic hat?" Luna inquired, sitting down.

"That'd be pretty cool," Harry answered, "Wanna help me make one?"

"Love to," Luna responded.

"I can't believe your parents allow you to dye your hair at your age," Hermione sighed.

"We're all free spirits," Harry responded, "Back in a minute, gonna say 'hi' to Nev."

"You have a nickname for everyone already?" Luna asked.

"Not you, yet; I guess it's a habit I picked up from my mum," Harry answered before heading over to the Hufflepuff table, "Hey there, Nev."

"Uh, hello Harry," Neville spoke, "Doing okay?"

"Never been better, though I could do without the stares and whispers," Harry remarked, ignoring some of Neville's housemates who were doing so.

Jin made a quiet sound, nudging Harry and looking at the table longingly.

"What's wrong with him?" Neville asked.

"He's just hungry," Harry answered, reaching pass Neville to grab a piece of bacon to feed Jin, "I really need to get him some raw stuff, though, the cooked meat doesn't agree with him after a while."

"He's not going to eat us, will he?" someone asked.

"I'll tell him to if you keep staring at me," Harry remarked, smirking in amusement and grabbing a banana.

"…does he have to follow you around?" Neville inquired.

"No, he just chooses to," Harry responded, petting Jin on the head and before going on to devour a banana without removing its skin.

"You're supposed to remove the peel," someone remarked.

"I know," Harry mumbled, mouth full before abruptly swallowing, "But my Aunt Ivy taught me to never waste anything that's been grown from the earth…to a point at least. Besides, the outside doesn't taste so bad; you want a bad tasting peel, you should check out oranges, those things taste terrible!"

"I'm guessing your Aunt likes plants?" Neville asked.

"That's a massive understatement," Harry laughed, "I'm pretty good with them too because of a few things I've learned from her…and other places."

"Guess that means you'll do well in Herbology," Neville presumed.

"You never know until it happens," Harry responded, finishing his fruit quickly and grabbing an apple before he headed back to his table, Jin trailing behind.

"What were you doing over there?" Penelope asked.

"Is it against the rules to visit your friends' table?" Harry retorted.

"No, but it's just a bit odd," Penelope responded.

"Trust me, that's most likely the least oddest thing you'll see me do…no Jin, your breath smells like bacon and I don't want my hair smelling like it for the rest of the day," Harry remarked, pushing away the pet and feeding him a bit of sausage.

"What's he trying to do?" Hermione asked, looking at the disappointed creature.

"He wants to groom my hair but, like I said, he has bacon-breath and my hair will smell all day if he does that," Harry answered.

"What's wrong with bacon hair?" Luna remarked, scratching Jin behind his ears.

"The smell tends to annoy others," Harry answered as the class schedules were passed out, "We have Herbology up first; plants, great!"

"You like plants," Hermione stated sarcastically.

"You should see some of the ones I take care of back home, granted they're my Aunts, but you'd be surprised at some of them," Harry responded.

"How bad could some muggle plants be?" someone remarked.

Harry simply gave a very wide grin which scared some people for reasons they could not explain.

Herbology started off fairly routinely, with Professor Sprout pointing out some of the plants they would be working on that year. Things took a turn for the odd when one of the plants suddenly wrapped up Harry in its vines and lifted him off the floor.

"Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine," Harry remarked, despite being held in a tight grip by the plant, "Plants really like me a lot."

Eventually, they were able to pry the plant off Harry but only after he promised it that he would be back before his next Herbology class to visit. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, if you ignored the repeated cases of Jin chasing after Mrs. Norris throughout the school, which quickly earned him a spot of admiration among the students.

**Tuesday**

"What's up first?" Harry asked.

"Charms," Luna answered.

"Read your schedule, Harry, stop asking us," Hermione sighed.

"I don't memorize things I don't like, so I've got you guys to tell me," Harry responded.

"What if we're not here?" Hermione pointed out.

"I guess I'm not going to my classes then," Harry laughed at seeing the horrified look on Hermione's face.

The class itself was fairly interesting, especially since it opened on the note of Professor Flitwick falling off his stack of books in excitement when he read Harry's name out loud.

"He's my head of house, so he shouldn't have done that…but that was fairly amusing," Harry remarked, as they were given the basics before starting off on a simple spell, which had some unexpected results with Harry's attempts.

"As much as I like explosions, this is getting really annoying," Harry retorted, wiping soot off his glasses once again, "At least class is over…"

"Mr. Potter, mind staying a moment?" Professor Flitwick called.

"See you guys in a bit," Harry said as stayed behind, "Sorry about the explosion, they were unintentional I swear!"

"I know they were, but I think it's an indicator of a problem," the diminutive Professor reasoned.

"So what do you think my problem is?" Harry asked.

"Most people have magic but need a wand acting as a focus to make it useable, but you are different," Professor Flitwick spoke, "You are easily capable of using spells, given the right push or incentive, without a wand but it tends to not work how you want it to. It seems like you will something to happen more so than say a spell, as evidenced by what happened during class."

"Again, I'm really sorry about that," Harry apologized.

"No harm done," Professor Flitwick responded, "I believe what the problem is the fact your magic seems to be extremely chaotic even though it should be balancing out now that you're learning to control it. Did you do a lot of accidental magic before arriving here? Constantly using magic then going to almost not using it at all might be what's occurring, a backlog of your magic."

"Well…not accidental magic, so to say," Harry answered, uncomfortable, "I'd rather it not get out I can do this…"

"You have my honor as your teacher, your head of house, and a wizard that nothing you say will leave this room," Professor Flitwick assured.

Harry bit his lip for a moment before having his hair shift to black and shuffle through several different colors and styles before going back to what he had before.

"You're a Metamorphmagi," the Professor remarked.

"Yeah, I'd rather it not get out…people stare at me enough as it is," Harry responded.

"I understand, but it's an odd coincidence, we had one graduate just last year," the Professor stated, "I presume you change your hair color often back home?"

"Yep; several times a day usually," Harry answered.

"That might be the core of the problem then. It may be that the amount of magic used, while small on its own, to change your appearance is enough to release excess magic so it doesn't burst out at odd or inconvenient times," Flitwick reasoned, "But since you can't do it now, without revealing your ability, your magic reacts in odd ways. With some practice, you should have it under control but a problem might arise when you get older."

"What sort of problems?" Harry inquired.

"As a wizard gets older, their magic grows and becomes stronger with them," Professor Flitwick informed, "But with you, it seems that your magic may increase to the point where using a wand would actually _hinder_ your magical abilities…I worry that point might come while you're still at Hogwarts, judging by how strong it is already, and that would make things a bit difficult for you here."

"…I'll burn that bridge when I get to it," Harry stated, "But in the meantime, got any advice?"

"You could practice your magic in the common room, since it's usually a regular occurrence no one would think twice about it," Flitwick offered, "You'd be letting off your extra magic while also getting valuable experience on how to do your spell work."

"Sounds like a plan," Harry remarked before leaving the room, heading to his next class in no hurry since it was History of Magic and he doubted that Professor Bins would notice him walking in late.

**Wednesday**

"What we got up first?" Harry asked, eating a piece of toast.

"Potions," Hermione answered, "With the Hufflepuffs."

"You notice we haven't had any classes with Gryffindor or Slytherin?" Harry remarked.

"A little strange, I guess," Hermione responded.

"Not that I'm complaining, a class with Snape's own house might be a disaster, especially if it's in his own class," Harry reasoned, finishing off his toast and popping a cherry tomato into his mouth.

"You may not care about your schedule, but at least you're taking to your spell work just fine," Hermione remarked, "I was surprised that you were practicing already."

"I like doing things more than hearing about them," Harry reasoned.

Harry felt quite at home in the dungeons where the class was held, it made him think of some of the hideouts back home but without the comforting feeling and the fact it was fairly cold down there; he wondered if it was the gloomy atmosphere or the jars of pickled animals that lined the walls that made him feel slightly homesick. He half listened to when Snape talked, only noting that the man had a gift of instilling a sense of control over the classroom without much effort.

"Potter!" Snape said suddenly, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"A sleeping potion called the Drought of Living Death," Harry answered casually, inwardly smirking at the look on Snape's face knowing that he was right.

"Where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?"

"The stomach of a goat or a similar animal, it can save you from most poisons," Harry fired back.

"What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"There's none, they're the same plant and also goes by the name aconite," Harry could not help but grin at the frustrated look on Snape's face.

Snape quietly glared before putting up instructions for their potion and stalking about the classroom, criticizing everyone's attempts. When he approached Harry, who was working with a look of serenity on his face, he gritted his teeth before inwardly smirking. 'Let's see what you've got stowed away in your mind…' he thought before making eye contact with Harry.

Snape found himself in a contradictory mindscape, a part of it was an open field decorated with a tree here and there while another part looked like a towering, ominous building which bore the name Arkham on the front.

"What're you doing here?" a voice demanded.

Snape turned to see a version of Potter standing before him, sporting green hair.

"You tried to take Harry away from his home…why're you in our head?!" Prank demanded, he growled in anger before declaring, "Stay out of his head or I'll show you that our mind is never a good place to be."

In the real world, Snape took a small step back as he was forcibly ejected and tried to ignore the burning on his arm.

Harry nearly dropped a vial as he held his head with one hand, glaring at the older man through his fingers.

"Harry, are you okay?" Neville asked.

"I'm fine," Harry responded, glancing sideways and seeing the ingredients in his friend's hand, "Take the cauldron off the fire _before_ putting in the porcupine quills."

"Oh, thanks," Neville set the ingredients down and did as Harry instructed.

'What was he up to?' _"He was in your mind; I got him out before he did anything."_ Harry clenched his teeth in anger. 'No one messes with my head…'

"Are you sure you're alright?" Neville pressed.

"I'll be fine," Harry answered before grinning, "I think we're a bit short on a few ingredients…mind getting them Nev?"

"But we have everything…" Neville trailed off when he saw the manic glint in Harry's eyes, "But it couldn't hurt to have a bit extra."

Harry grinned as Neville walked away from their table and he carefully withdrew a small bottle from his robe. After making sure that Snape was not watching him, Harry added a few drops to the potion and hiding the bottle in time for the mixture to start emitting a purple smoke.

"POTTER!" Snape yelled, seeing the reaction.

"Don't mess with my head," Harry stated as he got up from the table and walked away from it, plugging his ears before the cauldron exploded.

The classroom was quickly evacuated as everyone ran for their lives, Harry bringing up the rear at a leisurely pace.

"I can't believe you deliberately botched the potion so it would blow up," Neville remarked.

"I didn't like the way he was bugging me and if you haven't figured it out by now, I love explosions!" Harry laughed, brushing off some soot from his robes. 'Can't tell them it was really payback against Snape for trying to get into my head, I'd have to explain Prank too.'

"That was very dangerous," Hermione warned.

"Not if you know what you're doing," Harry responded, setting off down the hall with a slight skip to his step.

"What has he been doing in his life to be like that?" Hermione asked to no one in particular.

At dinner, Harry came up to the table still with a slight skip to his step, proclaiming, "No Potions for the rest of the week."

"But most likely you'll have detention for that amount of time," Hermione pointed out.

"It'll be a piece of cake, compared to what goes on at home," Harry responded.

"What do you do that would make detention with Snape seem so easy?" Hermione asked, also hoping for a clue to where Harry lived.

"It's more of what I see," Harry answered, knowing what Hermione was doing.

"Like what?" Luna asked.

"Adults running around in colorful costumes," Harry answered, knowing that there were quite a few cities in America with that description. Hermione seemed to know this bit of information too, judging from the irritated look on her face, "If you don't figure out where I live by the end of the school year, I'll tell you, okay?"

"_Why do you tease her?"_ a voice asked.

"You guys say something?" Harry inquired, confused since the voice did not sound like Hermione or Luna.

"No…are you okay?" Hermione appeared a bit worried.

"I guess it was just my imagination," Harry responded.

"_Hope no one knows what goes on in there…"_

"Okay, seriously, cut that out!" Harry exclaimed, a bit ticked off.

"…_this place is causing brother to lose his mind…where's that funny looking cat, I want to chase it again."_

"…'brother'…chasing a cat?" Harry muttered quietly before looking down at Jin, who was grooming himself.

"…_why's brother staring at me? …am I doing something weird?"_

Harry finally realized what was going on; he was hearing Jin's thoughts. The revelation caused him to stare at his pet for a few minutes before passing out in shock.

**Thursday**

"What's the schedule for today?" Harry inquired, once again eating a banana with its peel still on.

Hermione had given up on telling Harry to peel it first; it just made him eat the fruit more often that way to irritate her, and answered his question, "Transfiguration first up, then Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I think we have Herbology too, but I'm not sure if that's before or after lunch…also, we have Astrology tonight. By the way, are you feeling okay from yesterday?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…just a little shocked that I could actually hear Jin," Harry responded.

"You two are bonded," Luna reminded, "Maybe Hogwarts wanted you two to understand each other better."

"That's an interesting thought, even though a building can't be sentient," Hermione replied.

"What makes you think a building can't be aware?" Harry spoke.

"It's an inanimate object," Hermione reasoned.

"So are the suits of armors but they move," Harry pointed out.

"Because of magic," Hermione retorted.

"…you're upset about something," Harry stated.

"What're you talking about?" Hermione responded.

"You're more argumentative then usual and that combined with the fact Jin told me that you've been, and I quote, 'smelling sad' lately," Harry informed, "I'm your friend, 'Mione, tell me what's on your mind."

"I guess it's because my birthday is coming up soon and it'll be the first one not spending it with my parents," Hermione answered.

"Guess I'll have to fix that, then," Harry remarked, "When's your birthday then?"

"It's September 19th, what're you planning?" Hermione asked.

"You'll see," Harry grinned, "C'mon, we'll be late for class."

Transfiguration was interesting, but Harry was disappointed that they would have to start small first before doing anything big. By the time the class was over, Hermione and Harry were the only ones to do any changes to their matches; Hermione's actually looking similar to a needle while Harry's had simply turned silver.

**Friday**

Friday was a half day for classes and when they were over, Harry proceeded to drag all his friends to the top of the massive collection of staircases and proclaim his intention, which was met with disbelief, shock or, in the case of Luna, mild interest.

"A Galleon says I can do it," Harry challenged.

"You're on!" Fred and George responded.

"Don't even think about it," Hermione warned but it was too late.

Harry climbed onto the ledge and slid down the banister; when he neared the end of it, he jumped off and landed on another, sliding down that one and again jumping off onto another when he reached its end; he continued like this all the way to the bottom of the staircase where he dismounted with a flip.

"Are you completely insane?!" Hermione screamed, unable to believe what she had just seen.

"The doctors say I am," Harry replied with a laugh, "I told you I could do it, so pay up!" Fred and George grumbled before digging into their pockets and flipping a coin down to Harry, which he caught easily.

"You're very athletic," Luna remarked as she and the others made their way down.

"Flexible and pretty strong too," Harry proceeded to demonstrate by bending over backwards and placing his palms flat on the ground while still keeping his feet firmly planted; he arched his back slightly, before pushing off with his feet so that he was standing upright on his hands, did a few pushups while in this position before pushing off with his hands and landing upright, "I bet not a lot of people here can do that."

"Some people can't do that in the muggle world," Hermione retorted.

"Just shows that wizards can be a bit slow," Harry responded before dropping to his hands and starting to do pushups, "honestly, it surprised me how different things are here and back home."

"What do you mean?" Luna inquired.

"Back home, muggle and magical things are sorta combined," Harry answered, "For example, I've seen wizards use specially made electronic devices that are protected against magic since they're more convenient than most wizarding options."

"I've never even heard of anything like that," Hermione replied.

"That's because it seems that British wizards tend to live in the past," Harry replied before speaking to Luna, "No offense."

"None taken, I can see what you mean," Luna responded, glancing at the torches, "Can you do anything else?"

"There's this," Harry proceeded to stick his tongue up his nose.

"That is gross," Hermione deadpanned.

"I'm an eleven year old boy, gross is what I do!"

"_I can vouch for that,"_ Jin remarked with a sigh.

"No one else would understand you though," Harry teased, drawing looks from anyone who did not know his latest secret.

* * *

AN: If anyone is going ask, Harry uses his holly and phoenix feather wand during classes and in public and uses the other wand for less 'legal' things.


	12. Chapter 12

Konichiwa!  
Harry "I'm guessing you had fun at Fanime."  
You have no idea! -grins- For those who have no clue what I'm taking about, Fanime is the biggest anime convention held in California. It's a 4 day event that starts the Thursday of Memorial Day weekend and has everything an anime fan would love. If any of the readers were there you might've seen me walking around, I was a blind Itachi with a cane. :P  
Jin "Get on with the story!"  
Okay, okay...you're annoying now that I've made it so that you can talk...

* * *

"How's it going, Ritchie?" Harry asked the mirror.

"Been a bit boring without you around, but then with all the crazies around here that doesn't last long," Dick answered with a laugh, "So how's the how magic thing working out for you?"

"Not half bad, but I'm ticked off with all the staring," Harry muttered, glaring at a group who was doing just that, "I'm famous for something I don't remember, dumb innit?"

"A bit," Dick responded, "Anything interesting happen yet?"

"Other than it nearly falling off a staircase when it moved, not much," Harry answered, chuckling at the look on Dick's face, "Also, there's a lack of comics."

"I could send some though your uncle," Dick offered.

Harry smiled, "I'll bring back some wizarding candy to thank you with."

"That should be interesting," Dick responded.

"You have no idea," Harry muttered, remembering his first thoughts about chocolate frogs.

Dick's name was called from somewhere beyond the sight of the mirror, causing him to look over his shoulder, "Be there in a minute, Bruce! I gotta go, talk to you later."

"Bye, Rich," Harry spoke as his friend's image disappeared and tucked the mirror away into a pocket.

"Who were you talking to?" Bruce asked as he checked to make sure his gauntlets were fastened securely.

"Harry," Dick responded, attaching his cape, "He gave me this neat little mirror that lets me talk to him, magic's pretty cool."

"But it could be overused," Bruce pointed out, "Next time you talk to him, tell Harry not to lag on working himself physically."

Dick gave a shrug as he applied his domino mask and watched Bruce pull the cowl on.

--__--__--

"I was looking for you guys," Harry stated with a smile as he approached Fred and George.

"What for?" Fred answered.

"You guys know your way around the school pretty well, right?" Harry spoke.

"What makes you say that?" George responded, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"The first rule of pranking, know your surroundings along with any and all escape routes," Harry stated with a grin, "me and my dad, both blood and adopted have written books on the art, but I've perfected it. So tell me where the kitchens are or else."

"Or else what?" Fred asked.

Harry grinned widely, "You'll be subjected to a prank that involves duct tape, a lot of toothpaste, glue, and the assistance of Peeves…I'll let you guys try to figure out what I'll do with that stuff."

Fred and George looked from each other to Harry and back before George spoke, "We'll show you the way, Mr. Prince of Pranking." The two grabbed one of Harry's arms and dragged him off, Jin staring at the sight before chasing off after them.

"Here we are!" Fred announced, the group was standing in front of a painting of fruit.

"All you have to do is tickle the pear and you'll get in," George informed.

"I'll try to remember that," Harry muttered as the two left.

"_Fox Twins remind me of Odd Human and Alpha," _Jin remarked.

"I sorta get that 'Fox Twins' would be Fred and George…but 'Odd Human' and 'Alpha', who's that?" Harry questioned.

"_Odd Human is the one who plans things for Alpha, who takes care of me, Tonik, mom, and dad when you're busy," _Jin answered.

Harry thought over what was said before realizing who Jin was talking about, "Odd Human is dad and Alpha is mum?"

"_Yes, I thought that was clear,"_ Jin answered.

"Not to me," Harry shrugged, "But enough stalling, I've got plans to finish."

"_Brother, what're you planning?"_ Jin asked.

"Just a little something for Hermione," Harry answered before noticing that Jin looked a bit clueless, "She's the one with the brown, bushy hair and reads books all the time?"

"_You mean Paper,"_ Jin responded.

"…'Paper'?" Harry questioned, "Why do you call her that?"

"_That's what she smells like to me, it's easier to call someone what they smell like instead of the things you humans do,"_ Jin answered.

"We want to be unique, but that usually doesn't work out too well. There are only so many decent names out in the world," Harry reasoned.

"_Still, the names humans come up with are weird,"_ Jin muttered.

'Like yours are any better,' Harry thought as he reached up to the painting and tickling the pear as instructed, he arched an eyebrow when the fruit turned into a doorknob, "Not like that's the weirdest thing here…"

_"You're one to talk,"_ Jin remarked, earning a glare from Harry as he pulled open the door and was met by the slightly odd sight of creatures about the height of his knees staring straight at him.

"…if you don't mind my asking, what are you guys?" Harry inquired, staring down at the odd creatures while keeping a hold on Jin's collar.

One of the creatures stepped forward a bit, gave a bow, and spoke, "We are house elves, young master."

"House elves…why're you here?" Harry tugged on Jin's collar in warning when he tried to get closer.

"We take clean and take care of Hogwarts and do the cooking for all the meals," the house elf spoke.

"Are there a lot of you?"

"Over 100 at least," another house elf spoke.

"Do you guys have names or something?" Harry was a little surprised when they stared at him and started whispering, "Did I say something offending?"

"Wizards don't ask our names or worried they offended us," the first house elf spoke.

Harry gave a shrug, "I'm not like most people…do you guys mind if I make something? My friend's birthday is today and I want to give her a cake."

"We can do that for you!"

"I'm sure you can, but I want to make sure my cooking skills don't get rusty," Harry smiled.

"_Brother, meat!"_ Jin begged.

"Do you have some raw meat you can give to Jin here?" Harry asked.

Before the words left his mouth, a plate of several different types of meat came forward.

"Wow, you guys sure do aim to please," Harry joked as he set the plate down, "Jin, only eat what's on the plate, don't eat any of the house elves."

"_MEAT!"_ was Jin's only response as he attacked the plate.

"When it comes to food, you've got a one track mind," Harry laughed before turning to the house elves, "I need some ingredients, what do you guys have?"

"What do you need, we have everything one would want."

Harry grinned before listing off the things he would need, which the house elves scrambled to get and despite their offers, he proceeded to make the cake himself.

"Okay, who wants to try some?" Harry asked after the cake had cooled a bit and was met with odd looks, "…what?"

"Most wizards—"

"I'm not like most wizards, how many times do I have to say that?" Harry retorted, "I need someone to taste test this cake so I can be sure the next one is good."

It took some convincing, and near pleading, on Harry's part to convince one of the house elves to actually step forward and try; the reaction that Harry got surprised him, the house elf burst into tears.

"I guess it was bad…" Harry muttered, trying to sooth the creature.

"Anything but, young master!" the house elf answered, "No wizard shares something this wonderful willingly with a house elf!"

"I'm glad you like it," Harry responded with a wide grin before addressing the others, "You guys can have this one for yourselves; I need to make a bigger one for me and my friends."

Jin tilted his head in confusion as he saw a large portion of the house elves jump on Harry, yelling about how kind he was. He stared at the sight a moment longer before turning back to his food, _'These things are weirder than humans…'_

--__--__--

"Long night?" Luna half asked, half stated.

"It was worth it though," Harry responded, covering his mouth as he yawned.

"What was worth it?" Hermione asked, curious.

"You'll see," Harry cryptically answered, "You guys head down to breakfast, I need to grab something real quick."

Harry separated from his friends and headed down to the kitchens to grab the cake, greeting the house elves with a quick hello, and headed up to the Great Hall, nearly crashing into Neville on the way.

"Sorry about that, Nev," Harry apologized after making sure his cake was unharmed.

"It's okay," Neville responded before noticing what Harry was carrying, "What's that for?"

"It's Hermione's birthday, so I decided to celebrate a bit," Harry responded, "Come on; you're sitting with us today."

"What for?" Neville asked as he walked alongside Harry.

"You're my friend too and it's good to have fun with friends," Harry explained, "It's not going to kill you sitting at our table for once."

"I guess so," Neville responded as they walked into the Great Hall.

"Hi Gred, hi Forge," Harry greeted upon seeing the twins.

"Hello to you," George responded, "What's with the cake?"

"It's for Hermione, you're welcome to join us for a slice," Harry offered.

"Free cake, good enough reason to join," Fred joked.

"Free anything will convince almost anyone to do anything," Harry laughed.

"That's actually a valid point," George spoke.

"Happy birthday, 'Mione," Harry smiled, setting the cake in front of her, "It's chocolate with a raspberry filling."

"Thank you Harry, you didn't have to really," Hermione responded, blushing slightly at the attention.

"It's no problem, you're a friend and I won't let your birthday be boring!" Harry stated, "Go ahead and try some."

"My parents wouldn't think it's a good idea," Hermione retorted.

"Some cake on your birthday won't kill you!" Harry laughed, "Just eat a small piece then if you're worried."

Hermione gave in and took a small piece while Harry divided up the remainder amongst himself, Luna, Neville, and Fred and George.

"This is pretty good," Fred remarked.

"I love it when people compliment me," Harry joked.

"You made this?" George responded, surprised.

"With my own two hands," Harry boasted.

"…you're eleven years old, you know how to cook, you slide down multistory staircase banisters for kicks, you love explosions, and you're extremely smart," Hermione stated, "You're really something…"

Harry grinned before looking up, "Here's the last part of your gift!"

Everyone looked up in time to see an owl swoop down and land in front of Hermione, sporting a carefully tied ribbon with a tag saying 'To Hermione'.

"She's beautiful Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, hugging her friend tightly.

"Glad you think so, I figured that your own owl would be more reliable to send letters home with than the schools'," Harry spoke, "What're gonna name her?"

Hermione thought for a moment before smiling, "I read a name in one of my books that would be just fitting I think."

"What is it?" Luna asked.

"Hedwig," Hermione answered, carefully stroking the white feathers of the owl before her.

"What is it, Severus?" Dumbledore spoke.

"I believe there's something wrong with Potter, other than the obvious," Snape responded.

"What you cause you to think that?" Dumbledore asked.

"I had wondered if his time with those lunatics had affected him worse than what he's let on, so I checked his mind," Snape half-lied.

"What did you find?"

"It looked like another version of Potter but his hair was green. He grew angry that I was in their mind and pushed me out," Snape answered, "But the problem is when that occurred…the Mark started to burn…"

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes slightly, "I believe a chat is order with young Harry…"


	13. Chapter 13

Who wants cake?  
Harry "What's the occasion?"  
It's my birthday. =)  
Harley "Congrats!"  
Joker "Here's your gift!"  
...I really don't have much use for a bazooka... -_-

* * *

"Mr. Potter, wait a moment," Professor Flitwick called out.

"If this is about the incident in Potions involving the rubber chicken, it was justified I assure you!" Harry spoke.

"…I don't know the incident you're talking about…" Flitwick admitted, blinking in slight surprise, "all I wanted to tell you is that the Headmaster has requested that you come to his office during lunch, I'll give you the directions and the password now."

"…why do I have a bad feeling about this situation?" Harry muttered as he walked out of the room, holding a piece of parchment with the information written down.

Up until lunch faired rather normally, people had gotten used to Harry doing some rather offbeat things during or on the way to classes, including but not limit to: singing nonsensical tunes or songs no one could make heads or tails of, sitting weirdly on the chairs or benches and arguing his right to sit that way citing that it helped him think, and sliding down staircase banisters, occasionally falling off and traveling down several flights before grabbing on a railing to prevent himself from going 'splat'.

Harry approached the stone gargoyle that was supposed to be the entrance to the headmaster's office; he glanced down at the parchment in his hand before speaking, "Lemon drops." He twitched in irritation when nothing happened. 'If this is a joke…' _'Try something else.'_ 'Like what?' _'Another type of candy?'_ "Snickers, Twix, M&Ms, Cockroach Clusters, Ice Mice!"

"Chocolate Frogs," Professor Snape intruded, startling Harry.

"Holy Hermes, where'd the heck you come from!?" Harry exclaimed, glaring at the man and being oddly reminded of Batman at the trick. 'I seriously need to learn how to do that.'

At the correct password, the gargoyle leapt out of the way to reveal a rotating staircase causing Harry to comment "It's like an escalator." and ignored the way Snape glared at the back of his head.

Riding up the staircase, with Snape behind him, Harry let out a soft noise of amusement at the silver devices cluttering several tables around the office before noticing a beautiful red and gold bird.

"Nice bird, Uncle Pengy would love one," Harry commented, causing the creature in question to emit a soft trill.

"Fawkes loves to hear compliments," Dumbledore spoke, eyes twinkling.

'That's freaking creepy.' _'I wholeheartedly agree.'_ 'Glad someone in this room has my back, even if you're only in my head.' _'Don't make fun of my existence.'_ 'It's what I do, can't help it.'_ 'Unfortunately.'_ "So, what am I here for?" Harry asked, feeling a bit on edge being in the room with one man who seemed to hate his guts and another that seemed to have ulterior motives toward him.

"It has come to my attention that there seems to be an unwanted entity residing in your mind," Dumbledore answered, "From what Professor Snape has told me, this being seems innately evil and is becoming ingrained into yourself if its appearance is any indication."

'_Calling me an entity is insulting; I'm a fragment of your personality!'_ "What's it look like," Harry responded, pretending to be dumb while inwardly cursing out the two men for bothering him and mentally yelling at Prank to stop his whining.

"Exactly like you, except for his hair," Snape interrupted before answering the thought question, "It was green."

"That still doesn't explain why I'm here," Harry pointed out.

"We're going to go inside your mind to look for this being and see what it is doing to you," Dumbledore answered, eyes twinkling creepily.

"…you're going into my head to look for a thing that looks exactly like me but has green hair?" Harry sarcastically clarified. 'They must mean you.' _'I know that!'_

"Precisely," Dumbledore responded.

"…you can come in, but he can't," Harry responded, pointing at Snape, "I don't trust him; I can't help but think that he'd want to screw my mind up worse than it is."

Dumbledore gave Snape a brief look and a nod while Harry was distracted by Fawkes singing another tune, "Harry, if you're ready…"

"Let's hurry up and get this over with, I wanna get some lunch," Harry responded.

"Very well," Dumbledore spoke before drawing his wand.

"If you use that to attack me, you're gonna end up with a foot in your crotch," Harry threatened.

"I assure you, I won't," Dumbledore promised before pointing the wand at Harry, "_Legilimens_."

Dumbledore found himself in an area that was mainly an open field, with a few hills and several trees here and there, but in contrast to the field was an imposing building some distance away, surrounded by tall fence and a set of iron gates baring the words 'Arkham Asylum'.

Dumbledore stared at the building, while Snape appeared beside him, and spoke, "Why is a building like that in here?"

"It's a special place for Harry," a voice spoke, causing the two men to turn around to meet the gaze of Prank.

"I see what you meant, Severus," Dumbledore spoke, taking in Prank's appearance.

"You again," Prank spoke staring coldly at Snape, "I thought Harry had said you weren't allowed in, why are you here?"

"To get rid of you," Snape retorted.

Prank blinked slowly in disbelief before speaking, "If you want Hogwarts to become nothing but a pile of rubble within the next few days, by all means get rid of me."

"What are you talking about?" Snape retorted.

"The only reason Harry is at all able to function somewhat normally, and I use the word very loosely, is because of me," Prank answered, "Harry is a very…wild personality and generally has no thoughts for boundaries other than what he places on himself. I, on the other hand, am a very calm individual even by _normal_ standards, and I balance Harry's personality and emotions and make him function normally."

"You make it sound like I'm nuts or something," Harry snapped, suddenly appearing from nowhere.

"You are nuts," Prank deadpanned, "Or have you forgotten that one of your 'home away from homes' is an asylum for the criminally insane?"

"…oh yeah," Harry realized with a laugh.

"You actually knew he existed?" Dumbledore questioned.

"As much time as I spend in here, how could I not know he's bouncing around?" Harry responded.

"How did you get here?" Dumbledore asked.

"This is _my _head, I can come and go as I please," Harry responded, promptly sinking into the ground and disappearing before popping out a few feet behind the two men, "What I'd like to know is why he's in here."

"Like I had asked earlier, I thought you had forbidden Snape to enter our mind," Prank reasoned as Harry, inexplicably, floated over to him, "…I haven't figured out how you do that one…"

"I make the rules here…or lack of them," Harry laughed, floating upside down before staring at Snape, "In all seriousness, why the heck are you here."

"In case something like this came up, it's better to have two people to deal with a threat," Snape responded.

Harry and Prank looked to each other before the black haired boy spoke, "Do we really look that dangerous to you?"

"If your father was any indication…" Snape muttered.

"Which one?" Harry responded, "Because if it's my adopted one, I'll take it as a compliment!"

"They don't know who that is," Prank pointed out, "I'm assuming he was referring to your blood father."

"How can I act like him if I never knew him?" Harry retorted.

"Valid question, that," Prank responded.

"Seriously, why do you keep thinking I'm my blood father when I don't know a thing about what he's like at all, other than a couple of stories and those can either be true or works of fiction," Harry stated, righting himself and touching down on the grass.

Dumbledore gave a small cough to draw the attention of the near identical boys, "Harry, if you don't mind, can you show us some memories pertaining to Prank?"

"What for?" Harry responded, a bit suspicious.

"Simple curiosity," Dumbledore answered, eyes twinkling.

"Curiosity killed the cat," Harry remarked before thinking a moment and a wicked grin crossing his face.

"…which one did you choose?" Prank asked, seeing the smile.

"The first time you helped me out," Harry answered as a bubble appeared in front of him, "We need to figure out a better way to sort these…"

Dumbledore stared at the orb, inquisitively, "What would that be?"

"A memory," Harry replied as he touched the sphere, causing it to glow brightly before enveloping the group.

"…was this a wise choice?" Prank asked, finding himself in a warehouse that was all but abandoned.

"As much as I don't like it, it's special," Harry answered, watching the memory of his younger self opening up presents.

"What memory is this?" Dumbledore asked while Snape sneered at what was going on.

"Celebrating my eighth birthday, the first time I ever did that," Harry answered, watching himself receive his goggles from Mr. Freeze and slightly dreading what he knew came next, "Prank, remind me to beat Scarecrow with a chair again when we go home."

Dumbledore was a bit startled at the venomous tone in Harry's voice, "What did that person do?"

"Just watch," Harry retorted, averting his gaze slightly when his younger counterpart opened Scarecrow's gift and was sprayed with a fine mist.

Dumbledore made to asked what to watch for when the memory shifted so that everything seemed to be out of focus and blurred with the sounds of Harry screaming rattling in his mind as well as Snape's.

"Fear Toxin is a pain in the butt it makes a person see their worse fears in front of their eyes…here's Prank's turn," Harry muttered as the scene took on an oddly disjointed look to it, "I guess it turns out like that when the memory is Prank's and not mine."

The group watched two of them impassively and two in slight shock, as Prank in Harry's body proceeded to savagely beat Scarecrow with a pipe and turning him into a begging barely recognizable being. The memory ended as Harry came back to himself and ran way from the scene.

"He should be removed," Dumbledore spoke, staring at Prank warily.

"Prank protects me and looks out for me," Harry stated, "In Gotham, having someone watch your back is a valuable asset!"

"That may be but being in Gotham has been harmful to your health, if your association with this 'Scarecrow' is any indication," Dumbledore spoke, "Being in a safer environment, with your relatives, would keep you safe."

"Who cares about being safe, Gotham is my home! That's where my family is, where I've been happiest and had the best memories!" Harry yelled, "Sure I've gotten into a couple of scrapes while I've been there, but at least I'm not forced to work like a dog!'

"You'll better adapt to being with the Dursley's with those memories gone," Dumbledore reasoned.

This bit of information shocked the two personalities, the idea of forgetting their new family and everything they had done over the years seemed worse than death.

"There's no way in hell I'll let you mess with my memories!" Harry yelled as the landscape around the group suddenly shifted in reflection of its master's mood: the trees suddenly became barren and lifeless, the grass shriveled up and died, the ground cracked as if there had been a longstanding drought, and the appearance of the building seemed to grow larger and more menacing. If anyone had cared to look, they might have noticed that one of the shadows near Arkham suddenly sported a pair of toxic green eyes, which narrowed with unadulterated hate at the two men.

"You've overstayed your welcome," Prank spat as he and Harry together forced the two men out of their mind.

The first thing the two men saw after leaving Harry's mind was the vision of an extremely angry eleven year old glaring at them with eyes that seemed to be glowing slightly.

"You screw with my head again and I'll make your lives a living hell! Don't underestimate me just because I'm a kid, I'm capable of things you can't imagine!" Harry yelled before leaving the office, slamming the door behind him. He stormed down the hallways, muttering darkly under his breath, "I better get started on screwing with those two…" _'Technically, I've already started doing just that.'_ 'What'd you do?'_ 'Do remember your first stay in Arkham?' _'How could I forget?' _'Point taken; remember when your therapist attempted to curb your violent tendencies with a suggestion under hypnosis?'_ 'I sorta do…where're you going with this?' _'When I removed the suggestion, I didn't destroy it…it's just been wandering around, basically, ever since.' _'How come I haven't had any headaches then?' _'I believe since it wasn't attached to your mind at all, it had no effect.' '_Okay…but seriously, what's the point of this conversation?' _'I transferred the suggestion over to Snape.'_ '…you rule, Prank!' _'Thank you for the compliment.'_ 'Seriously dude, I'd hug you if your body was here!' _'I didn't know you were a narcissist.'_ 'A what?' _'…never mind…'_

"I believe that I know why your Mark acted up in your previous entrance into Harry's mind," Dumbledore spoke, staring at where Harry stood a few minutes before.

"What would that be," Snape retorted, noting that the Mark was burning again and that he was starting to develop a headache after planning on making Harry's classes just shy of being torture.

"As we were leaving their mind I noted that 'Prank's' eyes had changed," Dumbledore answered.

"Why should that mean anything?" Snape responded.

"…his eyes looked identical to Voldemort's," Dumbledore stated.


	14. Cooking Out Agressions

"..."  
Harry "Where the heck have you been?!"  
"I had freaking writer's block! And the fact another story kept begging me to write it didn't help matters!"  
Harry "What story could've grabbed your attention?"  
"It was a crossover"  
Harry "Between what?"  
"Your series and BioShock."  
Harry "...that does sound a bit cool"  
"I figured that you'd think that"

* * *

It was quickly obvious over the course of the rest of the day that Harry Potter was in an extremely bad mood as evidenced by face he kept muttering darkly under his breath about revenge against hook-nosed, greasy haired, biased jerks and twinkly eyed, maybe pedophiliac creeps as well as the fact Jin seemed to mirror his owner's dark mood and snapped at anyone who would get too close. After the last class of the day, Harry ducked out of sight of his friends and disappeared. Hermione and Luna recruited Neville to help them look and they spent a few hours looking before Luna suggested getting Jin to help them track their missing friend, which he did, to the amazement of the brunettes.

Jin eventually led them to a painting of a bowl of fruit and pawed at the pear before looking back at them.

"I'm guessing that's an entrance to something, like the Gryffindor common rooms," Hermione supposed, moving closer, "I'm betting we have to do something to the pear?"

Jin let out a noise of apparent agreement before scratching at the ground, looking pointedly at Hermione's hand.

Hermione tilted her head in confusion, "I'm not sure what you want me to do."

Jin let out a low growl of annoyance before looking at Luna with slightly pleading eyes.

Luna kept eye contact for a about a minute before announcing, "He wants you to tickle the pear."

"How do you know that?" Neville asked.

"I guessed," Luna smiled.

With no other options, Hermione did as Luna advised, drawing her hand back quickly when the pear started giggling and turned into a doorknob, "…I really should've guessed that it was something as simple as that."

"It's Hogwarts, nothing is what it seems," Neville remarked as Hermione turned the knob and opened the painting to reveal the kitchens and a Harry that was running to and fro with various cooking utensils, apparently in the midst of cooking several things at once.

"…how long has Harry been in here?" Hermione wondered out loud, noticing the tables around Harry loaded with several different types of food.

"Since classes ended, miss," a house elf spoke, startling the group.

"I like cooking, helps me think when I can't make stuff blow up!" Harry retorted, popping something into an oven.

"What're you making?" Luna asked, sitting down at a table and poking at a filled bowl.

"Just some food from home, makes me feel better," Harry answered, collapsing into a chair.

"Like what?" Hermione inquired.

"What I just put in the oven was a pizza, I made some burgers and fries earlier, which the house elves seemed to like, I also made chocolate pancakes when I first got in here," Harry responded.

"…you've been busy," Hermione sarcastically remarked.

"Like I said, cooking is my other outlet when I can't blow stuff up," Harry replied with a shrug before holding out a bowl, "French fry?"

"These look like chips," Hermione remarked.

"I guess that's what you guys call them," Harry shrugged, popping one into his mouth.

Hermione ate one slowly before speaking, "Are you living somewhere in the States?"

"What makes you say that?" Harry responded, a smile tugging at the edges of his lips.

"I remembered that usually Americans call 'chips' 'fries'," Hermione answered.

Harry grinned, "You still need to figure out where I'm from exactly, and you have about 3.8 million square miles to try and pinpoint where I live." He laughed at the look on Hermione's face when she heard she still needed to narrow down a lot more.

"What're you so mad about?" Luna asked, snatching a fry from Neville's plate.

"Dumbledore and Snape," Harry retorted, viciously stabbing his fry into a puddle of ketchup.

"What'd they do?" Neville inquired, moving his plate away from Luna.

"They wanted to erase…my memories," Harry answered, for the moment deciding to not reveal anything about Prank.

"What?!" Hermione exclaimed, scaring her friends and the house elves, "That's not only unethical, but I believe it's illegal!"

"The only reason they didn't succeed is because…" Harry suddenly trailed off, unsure as to whether or not to reveal what had really happened.

"Because of what?" Hermione pressed.

"I kicked them out of my head," Harry answered before elaborating, "Long story short, they looked around in there and decided it would be better for me to live where I originally did instead of where I do now. So I got seriously mad and kicked them out."

"You look like you've got half a smile painted on you," Luna offhandedly commented, defusing the situation.

"Wha?" Harry responded, dumbfounded.

"The ketchup on your cheek makes it look like you got part of a large smile," Luna answered.

Harry pulled his mirror out of his pocket to check on what Luna was talking about and saw she was right, "That's kinda neat."

**--__--__--**

"What is this exactly?" Neville asked warily.

"Pizza," Harry answered.

"Okay…but what is it exactly?" Neville inquired.

"It's dough with a layer of tomato sauce covered with cheese and for toppings I have anchovies, some pistachios, pineapple, olives, and several types of peppers," Harry explained.

"Is it normal to have all of that?" Hermione asked, "Or is it an American thing?"

"Not really," Harry responded before picking up a slice, "I put what I liked on it but I figured that house elves might not like that so I left one side plain and put my favorites on the other."

Luna stared at pizza a moment before picking up a piece from Harry's side, "Good to try anything once."

"You're gonna need some milk, or else the peppers are going to kick your butt," Harry smirked as a house elf brought over a pitcher of milk and some goblets. He was surprised when Luna took a bite and did not dive for the liquid immediately, "You have my respect, Luna; most people can't last through a bite!"

"I like the kick," Luna remarked, taking another bite.

Hermione and Neville decided to stay on the safe side and just eat the cheese slices. They wasted a bit more time just watching Harry work out his aggression _slightly_ nonviolently; he took great pleasure in smacking another lump of dough with a rolling pin.

"What smells good?" Fred spoke, striding into the kitchens.

"Hey Fred, hey George," Harry greeted, tossing aside the rolling pin and holding up something, "I made pie!"

"What kind?" George asked, sitting next to the Luna.

"Mixed berry," Harry answered, "Since I couldn't decide on whether to make blueberry or raspberry."

"Smells as good as anything mum makes," Fred remarked.

"Just don't start calling me that if you like it," Harry joked, slicing up the pastry and handing out pieces, "What brings you two down here?"

"Setting up a prank is hungry work," Fred commented, accepting his slice.

"What'd you guys do?" Harry asked.

"Let's just say it involves some rope, a bit of magic, and catnip," George smirked, taking a bite out of his piece.

"Amateurs," Harry scoffed under his breath.

"Excuse us?" Fred spoke with mock offense.

"Try doing an elaborate prank _without _magic and then I'll be mildly amused," Harry taunted.

"Is that a challenge?" George countered.

"It is if you two think it is," Harry grinned, somehow showing off a few more teeth than what would be normal.

"Only if you pull off something too, the same conditions," Fred dared.

"We got a deal then?" Harry coolly replied, holding out both his hands to the twins.

"Deal," the two answered, grasping Harry's hands for a brief moment before pulling away when a loud buzz sounded and they felt a jolt against their hands.

Harry cackled loudly before lifting to show his palms, revealing that he was wearing a coin sized device on his hands, "Joy buzzers; the oldest muggle prank in the book. Just wait until I do a decent one!"

"Thought we were being hit with a spell or something just now," Fred commented.

"It's just a vibration, nothing life threatening," Harry laughed, pulling off the devices and putting them in his pocket, "You'd be surprised what else muggles have made to get people to laugh."

"I meant to ask you earlier, but are you in a bad mood or something?" George inquired.

"What makes you say that?" Harry responded.

"Our mum sometimes cooks like mad when there's something wrong, but that's just her," Fred answered, "also, people have been a bit scared at the fact Jin has been acting 'meaner' than usual and people have figured how he acts is a reflection of you."

Harry took a bite of his pie before explaining what had happened with Snape and Dumbledore, the twins reacting with a bit of shock at what the so-called 'Leader of the Light' had wanted to do.

"Bloody hell mate, and our parents always went on with how good Dumbledore was," Fred remarked.

"You could maybe go to the Board with something like that?" George informed.

"What 'Board' are you two talking about?" Harry responded.

"The Board of Governors, I guess you could say they're a sort of in-between for Hogwarts and the Ministry," Fred answered.

"Why should I go to them? I've learned that governments are pretty much useless, at least the muggle ones but it seems the magical ones are too from what I've seen," Harry argued.

"No harm in trying," George appeased, "You could go to the Board with what happened and they might be able to do something but I'm not sure what. From what you've said, those two entered your mind, even though you gave your permission they didn't have the permission of a parent or guardian to do so which is breaking a law or two at least, and wanting to erase your memories is a lot harsher because if something goes wrong with that, you could end up with some serious mental damage."

Harry finished his dessert before he spoke, "Know of a way to contact that Board?"

"You could owl them, but that might take a while since they usually get quite a few with regards to the school I would think," Fred answered, "There might be another option but you might not like it."

"Why wouldn't I like it?" Harry inquired.

"It'd require you having to end up owing a favor to Draco Malfoy, since his dad is on the Board," George provided, "We figured that you would refuse the idea since you kinda hate him."

"What makes you say that?" Harry responded.

"You kicked him in the head during your first meeting," the twins deadpanned.

"Just because I kick someone in the head doesn't mean I hate him," Harry defended, "I dislike him sure, but that's because he was being an idiot at the time and has since left me alone."

"Still he might not help you since he might endanger Snape's job," George spoke.

"Why would Malfoy worry about Snape other that him being his head of house?" Hermione asked.

"Most likely because Snape and his dad are old pals or the fact that most likely Snape is his godfather, either one would be reason enough," Fred reasoned.

"Speaking of Snape, the git had been acting weird," George spoke.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Acting a bit 'nicer' if that's possible for him," both of them answered.

Harry grinned widely at that, "Guess that worked better than I thought."

"What'd you do?" Neville questioned.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Harry laughed before turning to the house elves, "Who wants pie?!"

Everyone quickly scrambled away from the table as every house elf in the kitchen dog-piled onto Harry, yelling about how a kind person he was.

"Harry Potter, your pocket is talking," one house elf spoke.

Harry pushed the creatures off him and dug into the pocket pulling out a mirror, "Who is it?"

"Who do you think it is, Magic Boy?" Dick joked.

"Ritchie!" Harry exclaimed, beaming.

Dick laughed before asking, "What was up with the high pitched voices?"

"House elves are an enthusiastic bunch," Harry smiled.

"What the heck is a house elf?"

"These," Harry turned the mirror to the creatures that promptly crowded around to see who he was talking to.

"Okay then…" Dick spoke, staring back.

Harry nearly dropped the mirror when the house elves suddenly spoke up and started asking questions, both directed at him and Dick.

"Who is that exactly?" Hermione asked over the noise.

"My best friend back home," Harry answered, getting the house elves of calm down and turning the mirror to his friends, "Rich, I want you to meet my new friends: Hermione, Luna, Neville, and Fred and George."

"Nice to meet all of you," Dick greeted.

"So, how'd everything back home?" Harry asked before quickly adding, "Oh, and don't say anything area or city specific."

"Uh…do you mind me asking why the odd request?" Dick inquired.

"I have a bet with Hermione that she can't figure out, by herself, where I live by the end of the school year," Harry answered, grinning at the brunette who was fuming silently.

"What's the prize supposed to be?" Dick asked.

"…I forgot to set one," Harry admitted.

"Is it because the bet was with someone that didn't know the rules?" Dick supposed.

"Rules?" Hermione cut in.

"Back home, whenever we'd make a bet there'd be a prize or something involved…like the time I bet Ritchie that I could climb up to the roof of his school in under five minutes and not get caught. The prize if I failed is that I'd get him a cake from this really good bakery downtown, if I won I would've gotten some of Alfred's delicious cookies," Harry explained.

"Did you win?" Luna asked.

"Yep," Harry grinned.

"I still think you cheated," Dick retorted.

"You're just jealous of my climbing skills!" Harry laughed.

"Other than the normal insanity that goes on here, it's been kind of quiet," Dick admitted, "Although there was a bit of craziness involving a clown…"

"Speak no more until I'm someplace a bit quieter," Harry interrupted, sensing that Dick might give something away if he kept on that line of conversation.

"Alright," Dick responded, "But your uncle has been spending a bit more time at our place…I think it's because of Alfred's cooking."

"Either that or the pool," Harry grinned.

Dick smiled before suddenly disappearing from the mirror and reappearing about a minute later, "Have to go Harry, Bruce is dragging me along to a fundraiser."

"Don't die of boredom," Harry advised, as Dick let out a snort of amusement and disappeared again.

"He seems fun," Luna remarked.

"You have no idea, like this one time during at Halloween I convinced him to ditch this party and go with me to throw eggs at cars," Harry laughed at the memory.

"What's a car?" Luna and Neville asked.

"It's a muggle thing…" Harry spoke before looking to Hermione, "You're better at explaining stuff…"

**--__--__--**

"Wonder if I could convince these little guys to try cooking up some different cuisine?" Harry thought out loud, watching the house elves clean up the various dishes.

"We'd like to learn how, Harry Potter sir!" a house elf piped up.

"Then I'll teach you guys when I get the chance…just don't pile on top of me again," Harry instructed, seeing that they were about to do just that, "When I get some free time, I'll come down here and show you guys what I know."

"That's sweet of you," Luna remarked as the group left the kitchens, Hermione agreeing with her.

"I'm just being nice," Harry retorted, blushing slightly.

"The little Jokester is embarrassed," Fred teased.

Harry paused at the nickname, for some reason it seemed to fit this version of himself, "You're just jealous."

"Why would we be jealous of the fact that at age eleven, you have two girlfriends?" George joked.

"I got more friends than you do!" Harry boasted, the actual meaning behind girlfriends flying over his head, "By the way, which way to the Slytherin common rooms?"

"They're down in the dungeons," Fred informed, slightly grinning at the fact Harry was a bit clueless in some things.

"See you later then," Harry said, walking off with a slight bounce to his step.

"…a Galleon says that he scares Malfoy somehow," Neville bet.

"I'm for that," Luna spoke up.

"He's promotion underage gambling at this age," Hermione sighed, aggravated.

**--__--__--**

"Hello there, Draco," Harry greeted, popping out of apparently nowhere.

"What do you want, Potter?" Malfoy snapped, quickly composing himself after nearly jumping out of his skin.

"Your dad is on the Board of Governors, right?" Harry clarified.

"Why're you asking?" Malfoy responded.

"What would you say if I knew something that would get Dumbledore and another person in some very hot water?" Harry teased.

"If it was a mudblood, I really wouldn't care," Malfoy spoke.

"…what about me?" Harry asked.

"What?" Malfoy responded, confused.

"The info I have relates to Dumbledore trying to do something to me," Harry responded.

"Well…what exactly did he try to do?" Malfoy inquired.

"What punishment happens to someone when they try to erase a person's memories?" Harry responded.

Malfoy smirked, "Depends on how bad my father can make the situation out to be."

Harry let out a cackle that instilled a slight sense of fear in the other boy and his guards, "This is going to be an interesting relationship between us…by the way, I'm a little bit sorry for the whole 'kicking you in the head' thing."


	15. Lessons Sorta Learned

AN: I know that in the book/movie, that the flying lesson was divided by class I decided to do it this way because it worked out better.  
Joker :"You're really killing your readers, you know, nearly two months this time!"  
Blame the fact I'm in another country and I don't have the books to get inspired by.  
Harley: "That's still no excuse."  
Harry: "Hi mom, hi dad!"  
Oh boy...let's just get on with the story...  
Harry: "There's one more thing, before we forget."  
Everyone: "Happy Birthday to reader: blue girl 1994!"

* * *

"Sign-ups for Flying lessons," Harry noted the notice posted on the board in the Common Room. He turned to Hermione and Luna, asking, "Either of you signing up?"

"I'd rather keep my feet on the ground," Hermione answered.

"I don't want to get attacked by Nargles," Luna responded.

"…okay…" Harry spoke before writing his name on the list.

**--__--__--**

"I have no idea how you talked me into this," Neville complained. Harry had somehow convinced him to sign up for the flying lessons.

"You'll be fine, Neville," Harry remarked, seeing how nervous his friend was.

"Easy for you to say, my gran never let me fly because I'm so clumsy on the ground," Neville sighed.

"Think of this as a confidence booster!" Harry offered.

"I don't think that'll do me much good," Neville sighed.

"Hey Longbottom, are you trying to go for a record on how badly someone gets hurt?" Ron yelled, laughing with a few of his fellow Gryffindors.

"Just ignore them, Nev," Harry muttered, directing his friend to the brooms, "If you acknowledge him, you'll be doing exactly what he wants."

"It's a bit hard to ignore someone that loud," Neville responded, still hearing Ron's taunts, "Why'd the classes have to be combined?"

"I guess there weren't enough people signed up from each house to do otherwise," Harry suggested.

"With my luck, I'll look like an idiot in front of all of the first years," Neville muttered.

Harry clapped his friend on the back, causing him to stumble slightly, "Don't think about that sort of stuff Nev! If you keep worrying how you'll look to everyone else, how're you going to be happy with yourself?"

Neville did not know how to respond to that and watched as Harry sped up a bit to reach the brooms. He noted that Harry's head was held up high and there was a lightness to his step, in comparison; his head was almost looking towards the ground and he would nearly trip over his own feet on occasion.

"Hey Nev, what're you waiting for?" Harry called out, seeing that his friend was no longer next to him.

"Sorry about that, I was thinking," Neville apologized standing next to Harry.

"If you staring off into space is you thinking, you must have a lot on your mind with how often you do it," Harry laugh, causing a few others to follow.

"You'd be surprised with what's crossed my mind," Neville admitted.

"What goes on in a person's head should stay there, you'd be amazing what a person can come up with in there...especially if it's plans to scare someone," Harry smirked at his own inside joke.

"If you say so," Neville muttered as Madam Hooch called for the rest of the students to gather for the start of class.

Harry found it amusing at how Ron and Malfoy kept on fighting despite the fact their lack of concentration was making it a bit hard for them to get their brooms in their hands.

He also found it interesting that his broom came to him on his first try.

"You're a natural," a Random Student commented.

"What do you expect; his dad was a Quidditch player! Of course he'd be good on a broom!" Another Student responded.

"I really hate people comparing me to my blood dad," Harry spoke, "How can I be so much like someone I don't even know?"

Any further discussion of Harry's apparent skills stopped when Madam Hooch started instructing them on how to properly grip their brooms. Neville smiled slightly when he heard that Malfoy was doing it wrong and that no one had commented on him yet.

"Alright," Madam Hooch spoke, "On the count of three, I'll blow my whistle. You are to gently kick off the ground, float a few feet into the air, and then touchdown. One, two-"

Neville, still a bundle of nerves and fearing that he would lag behind, suddenly took off.

"Nice kick off," Harry joked before noticing that his friend seemed to be in trouble. He let his magic flow into his broom, feeling it become more alive and energetic in his hands; he looked upwards and say that Neville had slipped off his broom and proceeded to say one word: "Fly." The students that had been standing next to him were suddenly pushed away as Harry shoot straight up into the air. When he saw his friend coming towards him, Harry hooked his legs around his broom and reached out, barely grabbing Neville by his robes and, miraculously, he did not slip out of them. Unfortunately, the weight combined with how fast Neville had fallen had pulled on Harry's arm hard enough to pull it out of its socket. Harry gritted his teeth in pain before grabbing with his other arm to hold Neville steady as they floated back to the ground; when they reached Terra Firma, Harry let go of Neville and simply hung there upside-down.

"Harry, are you okay?" a Random Student asked.

"Other than the fact that my arm has been pulled out of its socket, I'm perfectly fine," Harry deadpanned, "Seriously Nev, lose some weight."

"Ouch, that sounds painful," Another Student remarked about the injury.

"Not as much as it's going to be sore for a while after I fix it," Harry retorted as he got off his broom, holding his arm at a certain angle to prevent it from moving, "Those squeamish may not want to watch."

"Watch what?" the Random Student asked.

The question was quickly answered when Harry took in a deep breath; let it out slowly, before proceeding to shift his arm slightly in a few directions before it popped back into its socket with a slightly sickening sound.

"That's going to be sore for a while," Harry offhandedly commented, moving his arm back and forth slowly, before taking in the looks of the people around him and noting, humorously, that both Ron and Malfoy seemed to be a bit green.

"That is just wrong," a voice commented.

Harry smiled widely, showing off a few too many teeth before remarking, "That's just one thing I'm capable of doing, wait until you see what happens when I get knocked upside the head!"

"Mr. Potter!" Madam Hooch interrupted, drawing the class' attention to her, "That was an extremely dangerous stunt, both you and Longbottom were lucky not to have been hurt worse!"  
"There was no way I was going to let my friend fall," Harry retorted, standing his ground.

"I should take points off for that stunt and inform your head of house, but as it stands, due to your intervention Mr. Longbottom is unharmed," Madam Hooch responded, "I won't take points off but I will tell Professor Flitwick."

"That's reasonable," Harry agreed before speaking to the rest of the class, "Who wants to try that again?"

The proposition was met with blank stares.

"What?"

**--__--__--**

"That was fun, too bad that Hooch banned me from any further classes," Harry sighed.

"After those stunts you did at the end, I'm not surprised," Neville deadpanned.

"C'est la vie," Harry remarked, smiling, "But it does suck that she's making me personally tell Flitwick what I did…"

"Which part are we talking about here: when you saved me or what you did after?" Neville smirked.

"Smart aleck," Harry remarked, lightly hitting Neville as he walked into his Head of House's office, "Hello there Professor!"

"Mr. Potter, what'd you do this time?" Flitwick greeted.

"What makes you think I'm in trouble, can't a student visit his Head of House every once in a while?" Harry responded, both he and Flitwick were quiet for a moment before they started laughing, "That joke never gets old, does it?"

"Only when it involves something very dangerous," Flitwick answered, composing himself and motioning for the two boys to sit down, "So what happened?"

"You wanna hear about when I saved Nev or what I did afterwards to get permanently banned from any further flying lessons?" Harry spoke, completely straight-faced.

Flitwick stared at Harry for a moment before speaking, "Tell me the first one and I'll decide later if I really want to hear the second."

Harry let out a weird sounding chuckle before explaining what happened, surprisingly not embellishing a bit of the story.

"Quite the feat, Mr. Potter," Flitwick admitted, "I should recommend you to the Quidditch team-"

"I thought first years weren't allowed to join," Neville pointed out.

"Putting me on the team doesn't sound fair, since I bet other people have been waiting for their chance," Harry remarked, "If the team wants me, I'll try out just like everyone else."

Flitwick smiled slightly, "It's refreshing to see someone with your outlook on fairness."

Harry shrugged as he got up, "I just didn't think it'd be right if I was suddenly put on the team without at least trying out first."

"I'll inform you when tryouts will occur if you're still interested," Flitwick promised as the two left.

After walking down the corridor a bit, Neville abruptly stopped, causing Harry to do the same, "…teach me to be like you."

"What do you mean?" Harry responded.

"Teach me how to be confident, be brave, to be like you!" Neville clarified.

Harry looked his friend square in the eyes and spoke, "You don't want to be me, Neville, trust me on that."

"Why wouldn't anyone want to be you?" Neville retorted, "You're brave, smart, funny, and happy all the time; you even got recommended to be on the Quidditch team!"

"And I've got a homicidal manic after me!" Harry yelled, "You want to be the Boy-Who-Wouldn't-Freaking-Die?! You want to have both your parents killed and to end up in the home of the only living relatives you got, living in a cupboard underneath the freaking stairs and being worked like a house elf?!"

Neville was stunned, "I didn't—"

"Of course you didn't know! I hate the fact that everyone thinks they know me because of something I don't remember and didn't really do! Do you know what it's like to have people not care for who you really are at all?" Harry spat, "You want to be the Boy-Who-Lived, go carve a scar into your head."

"Why do you act so happy then?" Neville inquired.

"Because I'm in a place where people care that I exist," Harry admitted, "Sure they're not 'normal' by any stretch of the word …most of them are certifiably insane, truth be told, but they're great!"

Neville was struck speechless before muttering under his breath, "I just wanted to learn how to fight…"

Harry glared at his friend for a moment before an evil smirk crossed his face, "You want to learn how to fight, fine."

Neville looked up in time to see a punch come right towards him, he staggered backwards as the blow made contact with his face, "W-what was that for?!"

"The best way to learn is through real fighting," Harry emotionlessly responded, "If you can't take one punch, you're _pathetic_ and not worth my time."

"How was I supposed to know you'd actually hit me!" Neville retorted.

"In real life, you don't know when someone will attack you…if I had the inclination, I could've hit you at least a couple more times in the moment it took for you to step back from the first punch," Harry spoke, "I don't want to shatter your view of what the world really is, but know that things won't stay sugarcoated forever."

Neville stared at Harry's back as he stormed off, slowly running the conversation over and over in his head. He eventually walked off, not really paying attention to where he was going. In a few ways, he felt sorry for Harry: he did not choose the life he had, he did not choose for his parents to be killed; he did not choose to originally live with people that hated him. 'I guess I should be lucky that I still have my parents…physically at least. Being around crazy people would explain his behavior…'

"Watch where you're going Longbottom!" a voice exclaimed.

Neville noticed that his feet had led him into a run-in with Ron Weasley, 'Just what I don't need…'

"How did someone as famous as Harry Potter even get to know someone as pathetic as you?" Ron taunted.

Neville clenched his fist in anger before remembering that Harry had said not to take Ron's bait and sink to his level. Relaxing slightly and giving a noncommittal shrug, he responded, "I'm just lucky, I guess."

"You got that right, still, Harry should've been friends with me and been in Gryffindor," Ron flippantly spoke.

"Harry's happy in the house he's in, it suits him," Neville argued.

"Still can't believe he's in a house full of bookworms!" Ron responded, ignoring Neville's argument.

"Don't insult Harry's house or his friends!" Neville snapped.

"What about you then?" Ron shot back, "You're in Hufflepuff, where the people that can't get into the other houses go; you're a bunch of rejects!"

Neville had no idea what came over him but he suddenly found himself with his body positioned in the follow through of a punch and Ron on the ground covering his eye.

"You'll pay for that, Longbottom!" Ron threatened.

"I don't think so," Neville responded, with an air of courage in his voice, "I'm not afraid of someone like you, who's so caught up in what people say about a person that you don't care for who they really are. You're a bigger loser than I am. Also, I can see that you're jealous that I'm friends with Harry and you're not, which shows that you only wanted to be friends so you could be recognized by people; you're a really pathetic person."

With that, Neville walked off, barely restraining a goofy smile crossing across his face. As he walked into the Great Hall, he saw Malfoy gloating with his housemate and messing with his Remembrall. Taking a moment to collect himself, Neville walked over to the Slytherin table and up to Malfoy.

"What do you want?" Malfoy spoke, staring dismissively at the other boy.

"Give me back my Remembrall," Neville answered.

"And why should I?" Malfoy retorted.

"Because it's mine," Neville responded before repeating, "Give me my Remembrall."

"Why am I even wasting my time talking to you? You're almost a Squib and you're a disgrace to Purebloods," Malfoy derisively spoke.

Neville was quiet for a minute before speaking only loud enough for Malfoy to hear, "At least my father wasn't a Death Eater."

Malfoy's face grew red from indignation and, without thinking, he lunged at Neville who took the chance to punch Malfoy in the face, take his Remembrall back and flee before Crabbe and Goyle could realize what happened.

"Why'd you do that?" a fellow Hufflepuff asked when Neville took shelter at their table.

"I'm tired of people walking over me, so I stood up for myself," Neville responded.

"And you did so beautifully!" Harry exclaimed, popping up and nearly giving everyone a heart attack.

"Y-you really think so?" Neville stammered.

"Absitively posolutely!" Harry answered, the odd phrase was met with a lot of blank looks but a few smiled at the reference, "Especially if you were the one that gave Ron the black eye."

"Yeah, that was me," Neville admitted, a bit embarrassed.

"You knocked down those idiots and gave them a black eyes, not bad," Harry smiled, "We'll start in a few days."

"Start what?" Neville asked, confused.

"You wanted to learn how to fight, right?" Harry responded.

"I thought you said I wasn't 'worth your time'?" Neville quoted.

Harry grinned, "I wanted to see what you were able to do without being taught. I wanted to see you stand on your own two feet before helping."

"…you're weird," Neville deadpanned.

"You're just now realizing that?" Harry laughed, "By the way, get up early tomorrow and dress in something light and meet me by the lake, bring a bag or something."

"What's the bag for?" Neville asked.

"I don't think it's very comfortable to put rocks in your pockets," Harry remarked.

"Wha?"

"You'll see, and don't forget to wear running shoes," Harry informed before skipping away.

The next day saw Neville stagger into the Hufflepuff common room and collapse into the closest open chair. When someone asked if he was alright, Neville answered by repeating: "The pixies want to eat my brains" several times.

* * *

Harley: "What'd Harry do to him?"  
"Don't ask…you seriously don't wanna know…"  
Harry "It's not that bad, he should be grateful I didn't stick meat down his pants and tell Jin 'fetch'!"  
…that actually gives me an idea for the next chapter…by the way guys, there's a new poll on my profile on whether or not Harry should be on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and if so, what position he should be on.


	16. Halloween

AN: Watching someone play BioShock helped out with this chapter. Don't believe me? Play or watch someone play that game and tell me there isn't at least one bit that scared the hell out of you! And I can't believe I finished this in time for Halloween, three cheers for me!

* * *

Harry picked up the feather in exasperation, 'Move you stupid little thing!' Before he knew it, the feather had left his hand and shot across the room, just barely missing Professor Flitwick, and embedding itself into the wall. "…Sorry about that…"

"I should be thankful your accuracy isn't good," Flitwick joked.

'It's better than you think it is,' Harry thought, several attempts afterwards fared slightly better in the fact no one got close to being impaled, "Is it possible to kill someone with a feather?"

"If they were allergic to it, I suppose," Hermione offered.

"But would anyone die by being stabbed by one?" Harry retorted.

"I think that's impossible," Neville pointed out.

"Tell that to the feather stuck in the wall," Harry deadpanned.

Harry's mood stayed dim through the rest of his classes, though he did do better than most, but lightened considerably when he walked in to the Great Hall and saw all the candy, "This almost makes up for not being able to go Trick or Treating!"

"That sounds like fun, what do you do?" Luna asked.

"You dress up in costumes and go to people's houses to get candy, and if you don't you prank them!" Harry answered with a wide smile, eating some candy, "By the way, have any of you seen 'Mione around?"

"She's hiding in the girl's lavatory," Luna responded, eating some pudding.

"What? Why?" Harry responded.

"Ron Weasley," Luna simply stated.

"I'm going to shove his head right up his ass!" Harry threatened, standing up and starting to make his way over the Gryffindor table when Professor Quirrel barged into the hall screaming about a troll.

"I'm guessing a troll is bad?" Harry sarcastically asked, seeing the panic and chaos that erupted.

"Everyone thinks so," Luna answered, calmly eating some more pudding before Dumbledore told the Prefects to lead their houses back to the dorms.

"And away we go with the flow," Harry joked as the tide of students swept him along, "Luna, just take the pudding with you!"

"What about Hermione?" Luna asked, still eating her food and walking alongside Harry.

"What're you talking about?" Harry responded.

"She's hiding so she doesn't know about the troll," Luna pointed out.

"Crap!" Harry exclaimed before running in the opposite direction, Luna following close behind, "If we hurry we can grab her before anything happens."

Heading down the corridor they ran into, literally, Neville who had been going in the opposite direction.

"What're you doing here, Nev?" Harry asked, "Isn't your house in the other direction?"

"I got separated from the rest of my house when everyone went mad," Neville answered.

"We have a bigger problem," Luna pointed down the corridor to where the troll was, "That's where Hermione is hiding."

"Oh this is just wonderful!" Harry sarcastically exclaimed before taking in a deep breath and letting it out, "Okay, here's the plan: I distract the big idiot, you two grab 'Mione and run your asses off."

"Are you crazy?!" Neville exclaimed.

"Why do you keep asking that question if you already know the answer?" Harry grinned.

Neville sighed in exasperation as the three made their way to the bathroom; Harry kept true to his promise of being a distraction by breaking off a sink and throwing it at the troll's head.

"Didn't I say: grab 'Mione and run your asses off?!" Harry yelled, seeing that his friends were staring at him in shock.

Being yelled at snapped them out of their stupor and the noise caused the troll to focus on Harry long enough for them to escape.

Looking at the door long enough to see his friends vacate the bathroom to safety, Harry glanced up at the face of the creature and muttered, "Okay ugly, now I can let loose."

It was actually a bit boring how predictable the troll attacked; either it would swing downwards or horizontally. 'I'm infinitely thankful that I convinced Uncle Croc to let me fight him once in a while, makes going up against this guy a piece of cake!'

Ducking out of the way of another swing, which smashed a toilet stall and a sink, Harry cursed the fact he had recently stopped taking his cards wherever he went and was without his gas capsules too, 'I should really take a page out of that Bat's book and be crazy prepared for anything!'

He ducked into a section of the wall that had been broken away to get out of sight to catch his breath. Glancing around for anything to use as a weapon, he picked up a shard of porcelain before vacating his hiding spot for another to pick up a fragment of wood.

Tightening his grip his makeshift weapons, grateful that he had taken the liberty of putting on his gloves and that he would not be pulling splinters out of his hand later, he waited until the troll swung down and jumped out of the way before running up the troll's arm and used all of his strength to shove the weapons into the creature's eyes. The troll attempted to pull the shards out, bellowing in pain, but the weapons were too small for it to grasp and instead caused them to go deeper.

'I guess I should put the thing out of its misery,' Harry thought as he watched the creature stumble around in pain. Looking around for a moment, he picked up a large fragment of wood and climbed up as high as he could. He then proceeded to jump off from his spot and proceeded to hit the shards sticking out of the troll's eyes hard enough to shove them into its skull; he had screamed out "KABOOOOOONG!" the instant he had made contact with the troll's head. 'Wish I had a guitar to do that with, but that was fun!'

"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall gasped, seeing the damage Harry had done.

"Hello there, Professor," Harry smiled, walking around the troll slightly.

"What were you thinking?" Flitwick asked, astounded that a first year had singlehandedly killed a troll.

"Either you destroy your opponent or get destroyed yourself," Harry responded, ignoring the puddle of troll's blood he was standing in, "Uncle Croc taught me that one."

"Taking on a full grown troll by yourself, you could've gotten killed!"

"I wasn't going to abandon 'Mione and let her get hurt!" Harry argued, "She's my friend, and I don't abandon my friends _ever_!"

McGonagall, along with Flitwick, remembered James Potter's steadfast loyalty to his friends and could not help but be a bit relieved that a small portion of that remained in his son despite the way he was.

"Professors, do you mind me saying something?" Luna spoke up.

"What is it, Ms. Lovegood?" Flitwick responded, startled slightly because he had forgotten about her along with Neville and Hermione.

"While Harry did break the rules by not listening to orders to go back to the common room, if he didn't Hermione would be dead right now and there would still be a troll running around the castle," Luna pointed out.

"The ends justify the means!" Harry interjected, "You may be ticked that I disobeyed, but you should be happy you don't have a death on your hands!"

"That is enough, Mr. Potter," McGonagall commanded.

"Yes ma'am," Harry responded, instantly recognizing the tone in the Gryffindor Head's voice as one similar, but less menacing, as when Joker would want to scare the crap out of a normal person.

"For now, go back to your common rooms while this gets cleaned up," McGonagall ordered, "Any punishment will be discussed at a later date."

"Yes ma'am," Harry answered as he and his friends walked off, first swinging by the Hufflepuff dorms to see Neville off before heading towards their house.

"You are ridiculously reckless," Hermione sighed before smiling, "Thank you for saving me, though."

"The number of close friends I have can be counted on one hand, and besides, abandoning your friends makes a person lower than dirt!" Harry remarked before speaking to Luna, "Great quick thinking there, by the way, you saved my hide, Alba!"

Luna tilted her head slightly, "Who's that?"

"That's your nickname!" Harry stated.

"Where'd that come from?" Hermione asked, confused at how Harry got Alba from Luna.

"It's a part of the scientific name for a moon flower: Ipomoea Alba," Harry clarified, "The idea came to me after Jin mentioned that Luna smells like flowers."

"How do you know the scientific name of a moon flower?" Hermione pressed.

Harry paused a moment before dramatically declaring, "Do not question the powers of my scar, it holds the answer to everything!"

Hermione smiled and shook her head slightly both at Harry's inventive nickname and his acting like a drama queen as he entered the common and could not help but notice that Luna's cheeks seemed to be a bit pink. The cute moment was thus ruined by Peeves floating by and singing an annoying song, Harry reacted by somehow chucking a chair at him.

"…how can a first year throw a chair that weighs more than him?" a Random Student asked to the stunned room, he received no answer.

* * *

AN: Cookies to anyone who figures out where the 'KABOOOOOONG' line comes from…but damn, you're a strong 11 year old. What the hell was in that serum Ivy gave you?

Harry : "The extract of MAGICAL MUSHROOMS OF POWAH!"


	17. Quidditch

Harry: "What're you doing, messing with an old chapter?"

I was writing out the next one when I realized I screwed up in this one.

Harry: "How'd you mess up?"

I forgot some dialogue that's important for later events.

Harry: "How'd you forget that stuff?"

* * *

I didn't have the book on hand at the time and originally had to do this chapter from memory, give me a break!

"You look... terrible..." Hermione commented, seeing the bags under Harry's eyes.

"My dormmates had me up half the night retelling what I did to the troll... slightly edited to not give them nightmares," Harry explained, adding on the last bit when he saw the look on his friend's face, "When some of the older years snuck in to hear me tell it again I was up even longer!"

Luna patted the top of Harry's head, in a comforting gesture before going back to her breakfast: pancakes covered in ketchup.

Harry stared a moment before commenting, "I've seen people eat eggs with ketchup but never pancakes..."

"Wanna try?" Luna offered, holding out a piece on her fork.

"I'll try anything at least once," Harry muttered before leaning over and eating the piece. He chewed, swallowed, and made a face, "Not really to my liking, Alba."

Luna just gave a shrug as she went back to her food, pouring a but more of the liquid tomato on top.

Hermione watched the interaction a moment before taking a bite out of her toast, "Are you going to watch the Quidditch match today?"

"Who's playing?" Harry responded, grabbing an apple.

"Gryffindor versus Slytherin, those are always fun," Fred and George answered, showing up.

"Because it's your house?" Harry smirked, taking a large bit out of the fruit.

"That and the fact we're both on the team," the twins grinned.

"I'll go check it out, it only to see which positions I might be good for," Harry spoke through a full mouth.

"Preparation for next year?" the two responded.

"I was offered to be put on the team this year after saving Nev from breaking something during flying lessons," Harry responded before cutting off Hermione, "The reason you didn't know is that when anyone talks about Quidditch, you tune it out."

Hermione closed her mouth since Harry did have a point.

"You're the perfect size for a Seeker," one of the redheads mused.

"Which one's that?" the blue haired boy asked.

"I'll point it out to you," Luna offered, finishing up her meal, "The game is going to start soon."

"That's right, we have to head off to the lockers, see you around, kiddo," Fred and George quickly ran off.

"This will be fun, especially if those two are playing," Harry grinned.

"Let's head down to the pitch, before the good seats are taken," Luna suggested.

"By the way, have you seen Jin around?" Harry asked as they walked down to the pitch.

"I think he's been around the dog Hagrid has," Hermione offered.

"I guess he finally found a playmate his own size or at least one who's an animal," Harry grinned, "Maybe he'll burn off enough energy that he doesn't chew on my bedposts..."

Hermione could not help but pause in her walking at the offhanded comment, "...was that a joke?"

"Nope, Jin chews on things when he's bored," Harry honestly answered before muttering to himself, "I should get him some of those chew toys for dogs so he doesn't mess up his teeth or mouth but then again he might end up destroying those..."

"Decide later, the game is about to start," Luna advised, bringing attention to the fact they were already at the pitch and had gotten seats with a good view of most of the field.

"What position do Fred and George have?" Harry asked, a wide smile crossing his face as he saw one of the twins hit the dark ball towards someone on the Slytherin team.

"Those are Beaters,a Random Student answered, "They protect their teammates from Bludgers and hit them at the other team to try and distract them."

"Cool," Harry remarked, still smiling.

"The Seeker is the one looking out for the Golden Snitch," Luna pointed to the person floating higher above the game.

"So he just sits there? That's kinda boring," Harry remarked.

"The Snitch is worth 150 points and ends the game," Luna provided.

"Seems that whichever team catches that thing wins the game, so it's a bit pointless to be scoring points..." Harry mused.

"That's not always the case," the Random Student cut in, "A few world cup matches have ended with the winning team not being the one that cause the Snitch, mainly because the games were running long."

"What's the record for the longest game?" Harry asked.

"Three months," Another student chimed in.

"...holy Hermes, that must've sucked," Harry responded before turning back to the game.

**--__--__--**

"Why's he here?" someone asked, pointing at Harry.

"Professor Flitwick recommended me; I told him I'd tryout first because people would be pissed if I was just put on the team," Harry answered.

"That's very diplomatic of you," the Captain commented.

"Don't get used to it," Harry deadpanned as he wandered off to the group trying out for the Beater position.

The other students there quietly mocked the first year for thinking of trying for the position but were completely silenced when he took up the bat and the Bludger was released.

"You have a good arm for a first year," the Captain commented, surprised at how far the Bludger had flown when Harry had hit it.

"You should see me throw stuff!" Harry laughed before tossing the bat to another Beater tryout.

"Maybe you should try being a Chaser?" the Captain said as a joke.

"Nah, I like throwing smaller things," Harry honestly responded, walking over to where two other Ravens stood by to try for the Seeker, he paused a moment before speaking in a low tone to the other two, "The only reason I'm trying out this position is because my friends bugged me to."

The boy who seemed to be a third year did fairly well but the girl, Cho from what Harry heard mentioned, did quite better. When it came to the first year's turn, everyone was impressed by how quickly Harry caught the glittering orb.

The tryouts went smoothly and at the end the captain announced who would have what position, which caused a bit of friction when Harry heard where he was placed.

"I wanna be a freaking Beater! I get to hurt other people without getting in trouble!" Harry argued.

"But the thing is, you're more suited for a Seeker because of your light weight and small size," the Captain pointed out, slightly scared at how the first year was acting.

"I wanna hurt people!" Harry exclaimed with a pout, "If I'm not a Beater, I won't play!"

"Alright, alright. You can be a Beater but I'm putting you as a reserve Seeker," the Captain sighed.

"Beater first, Seeker second," Harry grumbled before turning to Cho, "You better do good and stay in the game so I don't take your spot."

The second year was a bit speechless before nodding her head in firm agreement.

**--__--__--**

Harry barely heard the commentary of the game, he was too busy having fun flying around hitting the Bludgers at the Hufflepuff team. His attention was caught when he heard the crowd let out a sound that didn't seem like excitement for the game, forcing him to look around the field. It was then that the first year noticed that Cho was on the ground being looked over.

"What's up with Cho?" Harry asked, landing fairly close to the Captain.

"Bludger broke some of her ribs, she's out of the game," the Captain sighed before looking at Harry.

"...you owe me chocolate for this," Harry groused, knowing what the older player was thinking as he handed the reserve Beater his bat.

"There's a bit of a change up for the Ravenclaw team, it looks like they called in one of their reserve Beaters so Harry Potter could takeover as Seeker!" Lee Jordan announced, having been told what had occurred, "I wonder why they didn't have him as a Seeker in the first place, he's built for it..."

"I like being a Beater!" Harry yelled out as he flew pass, the microphone catching his voice and echoing his message to the rest of the stadium, causing a lot people to laugh.

The Chasers scored a few more points while Harry did a few circuits around the stadium to get into the flow of things, when his broom suddenly jerked under his hands. He barely let out a noise of surprise when his brook nearly bucked him off, causing him to grip the handle tightly.

"That's not good," Luna idly commented, watching as Harry rolled through the air.

"A brand new broom shouldn't do that," Hermione murmured, scanning through the crowds with her binoculars before stopping and handing them to the other girl, "Look at Snape!"

Luna looked through and saw that the Slytherin head was staring unblinkingly at Harry while mouthing words, "It looks like he's casting something in Harry's direction..."

"He's jinxing the broom!" Hermione concluded before running off through the crowd.

Luna watched the other girl leave before turning her gaze back to her struggling friend, a single thought going through her mind, 'Harry, I know you'll get out of this.'

Eventually the barrel rolls took their toll and Harry lost his grip, sending him flying and crashing into the teacher's box of the Quidditch stands, landing on Professors Snape and Quirrel.

"Dude, that was almost as great as the Tilt-a-Whirls at the carnival..." a slightly dizzy Harry mused as he lay where he crashed. Blinking his eyes to get his bearings, he saw the glint of the Snitch nearby. Quickly flipping upright, he made to jump from the stands and

back onto his broom but was held back by his robes having been caught on something. Growling, Harry quickly undid the arm guards and clasps that kept the robe attached to him and jumped onto his broom in time to see the Snitch move rapidly towards the ground.

"You're not getting away that easy!" Harry declared, shooting after the object like a bullet.

Harry caught up to the other Seeker and was quickly drew even to his level, both of them flying straight towards the ground. The other Seeker glanced nervously between Harry and the ground before pulling up, shadowing the Raven from several feet higher as he continued to follow the Snitch.

Eventually the Snitch leveled out and flew no higher than a foot or so off the ground with Harry close behind. Harry tried to reach out and grabbed the glimmering object but it was just out of reach, so he lunged forward and upset his center of gravity, sending him off his broom and through the air, tumbling on the ground before quickly popping back up onto his feet.

"What a nice recovery!" Lee Jordan spoke, "But where's the Snitch gone?"

Harry answered that question by opening his mouth and pulling the golden object out, "That was an interesting taste..."

"...he caught it in his mouth... Harry Potter has caught the Snitch, the game's over with Ravenclaw victorious!" Lee announced.

Harry was dog piled by several of his teammates who were excited at the win and how the first year had performed.

"Get off me or you're getting black eyes!" Harry joked, laughing as the team congratulated him as they went back to the lockers.

As he left the lockers, sometime after the rest of the team had gone and most of the crowd had too, Harry noticed the unique hair color belonging to a certain Slytherin.

"Not a bad first game," Draco commented.

"Would've liked that Cho stayed in, I really like being a Beater," Harry responded.

"As shown by the fact at least one of the Hufflepuff players has cracked ribs," the Slytherin deadpanned.

Harry simply laughed, "Any particular reason you're delaying me from celebrating my first game and win?"

"My father just sent me back a letter, it seems that Dumbledore is only getting off with a warning..." Draco stated.

"...what the hell?!" Harry exclaimed, "He tried to screw up my memories and all he gets is a bloody warning?!"

"Dumbledore has a lot of influence and most people don't think that the next Merlin is capable of doing what you said," Draco pointed out.

"Still, that's a load of crap," Harry retorted, "It's not gonna stop me from making my time here hell for him."

Draco was a bit disturbed by the wide smile that crossed Harry's face.

"If that's all you have to tell me, I'll see you around," Harry walked off before calling over his shoulder, "I'm glad your goons weren't around, it's easier to talk when you don't have them, Draconis!"

It took a moment for the blonde to realize what the other boy had called him, "How do you know that?!"

"Guess!" Harry laughed, running off before the fair haired boy could think to go after him. As he ran off, he decided to start planning how to screw Dumbledore over, 'I'm going to need duct-tape, peanut butter, a mango, an unbreakable comb, and at least half a dozen boxes of cards...'

"Amazin' first game, Harry!" Hargrid greeted, forcing the Raven to temporarily put his plans on hold.

"Thanks," Harry smiled at the large man, "By the way, Hermione told me that Jin's been hanging around with your dog, that true?"

"Yeah, the little guy's been trying to get Fang to play but he's not the active type," Hagrid answered.

"I guess he wanted to get away from all the untrustworthy smelling people," Harry guessed, "Particularly Snape..."

"What's got him bothered about Professor Snape?"

"Jin said he smelled blood and something else that didn't seem right coming off him after the troll attack," Harry answered, "In general, he doesn't seem like that good a person."

"Professor Snape might not be the most pleasant of teachers, but if push comes to shove, he'll protect the students," Hagrid pointed out.

"Most likely his own house, but I guess it's the thought that counts," the Raven shrugged, "By the way, Jin told me about some huge creature up on the third floor, you have any idea what that might be?"

"Jin met Fluffy?"

"...Fluffy? You named a, presumably, big beast _Fluffy_?!" Harry incredulously spoke.

"I raised him, I can call him what I like," Hagrid responded, "Bought him las' year off a chap I met in the pub, lent him to Dumbledore to guard the..."

"Guard the what?" Harry pressed, the thought of something very valuable worth stealing was causing his hidden villain side to emerge slightly.

"Don't be asking anymore about that, it's top secret," Hagrid gruffly responded.

"C'mon, I won't tell!" Harry pleaded, trying to convince the large man.

"Now, listen to me, you're meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. Forget that dog, an' forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel..." Hagrid suddenly realized his slip.

"Thanks for the hint!" Harry grinned as he ran off. 'Maybe coming here will be a boost to my bank account as well as my stores of knowledge.'

* * *

Harry: "What up with listing random things when planning?"

Noodle Incidents and Noodle Implements...look it up on TV Tropes, I hate and love that site so much!


	18. Midnight Duel

A/N: Nearly four months without an update, if you don't count Side Stories, I'm really sorry! Life kind of got away from me.  
Also, I added a bit to chapter 18 because I realised that I had left something out of there. It's towards the end if you want to skip the rest of the chapter.

* * *

_[Brother, something is making Paper sad,] _Jin informed just before breakfast one day, while stealing some of Harry's food, _[Yummy bacon!]_

Harry laughed at the hyena's thoughts before turning to his friend, "What's wrong this time, 'Mione?"

"How do you... Jin, am I right?" the brunette glanced at the creature that was eating most of the food from Harry's plate.

"He tells me everything," Harry shrugged, grabbing some more meat for Jin, "So, what's the problem?"

"...a certain annoying redhead has been bothering me..." Hermione trailed off.

"Ron?" Harry clarified, to which Hermione confirmed. The boy let out an annoyed sound as he ate a piece of toast before following after the Gryffindor when he left his table.

Hermione and Luna shared a look before quickly getting up and going after him, Draco saw the motion and when after them but taking care that no one noticed.

"It's really pathetic, picking on a girl," Harry stated as he confronted Ron, who was with a few of his friends, out in the hallway, "Are you scared to face another guy or are you just weak?"

"I can beat you anytime," Ron boasted, "Wizard's Duel, no contact. Seamus is my second, who's yours?"

"I am," Draco spoke, stepping forward with a smirk on his face.

Ron face flushed red with anger before pointing at Harry, "Why's a slimy Snake your second?"

Harry responded by punching Ron in the face, "Sure Draconis slicks back his hair, but that doesn't make him slimy."

A small stream of red came from beneath the other boy's hand, which was held up to his nose, indicating that Harry had at least gotten it to start bleeding if not broken it. Ron quickly got up and ran off, calling over his shoulder, "We'll meet in the trophy room at midnight!"

"Idiot," Harry muttered under his breath before turning to the blonde, "What is so special about a Wizard's Duel that I need a second?"

"The second is that in case you die, the other person can step in and finish the duel," Draco explained, noting the look on the barely blue haired boy's face, "I doubt either of you know enough magic to hurt each other and that's why he said no contact, judging from how hard you can punch you'd easily beat him there."

Harry grinned, "I'm glad you have such faith in my abilities to physically hurt people.

"You'll get get detention!" Hermione pointed out.

"That's if we get caught, I have no intention of that happening," Harry smirked before turning back to Draco, "I'll meet you outside your common room about half an hour or a quarter til midnight, that fine by you?"

Draco simply nodded his head in agreement, "The entrance is-"

"In the dungeons, I know," Harry cut off, a secretive grin crossing his face.

"How do you know that?"

"When I'm bored, which is often, I wander the castle and I talk to the paintings," Harry admitted., "You'd be surprised at what info you can get from them just by stopping and having a nice chat... by the way, your house comes up with some borderline pseudo-racist passwords..."

"You know the password?!"

"I know a lot of things," Harry laughed.

[_Brother, I don't trust that one,] _Jin chimed in, nudging the Raven's hand.

"Which one?" Harry asked.

_[The sibling of the Fox Twins, the one I call Annoying Weasel.]_

Harry laughed at Jin's nickname as he scratched the hyena's ears, "I wonder what he's got in store... how do you know what a weasel is?"

_[I don't, I just guessed that he's like one,]_ Jin answered, wondering why his brother thought that was even funnier than the nickname.

_--__--__--_

That night, Draco quietly exited his house's common room and was immediately pulled away from the entrance as it closed.

"Don't panic, it's just me," Harry whispered, keeping a firm grip over Draco's mouth.

The Slytherin pulled away from Harry, breathing harshly from surprise, "Where'd you come from?!"

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to hide in shadows or plain sight," Harry quietly laughed, adjusting what he was wearing over his eyes instead of his glasses.

"What're those?" Draco curiously asked.

"My goggles, I figured my glasses might slip off my face so I wore these instead," Harry answered.

"Where'd you get those, I've never seen a shop selling them," Draco asked, a tinge of jealousy in his voice.

"An uncle of mine gave them to me as a birthday present, but had to take them back for a few extra days since I had to get special lenses made because of my messed up eyes," Harry clarified.

"Why don't you get your eyes fixed?" the Slytherin inquired.

"I like my goggles and I never really thought of getting surgery or magic to fix them," Harry shrugged, nudging the blond to start walking.

As they walked pass a lit torch, Draco noticed something, "Your hair's green and silver..."

"The color was fading and I thought this would make Ron royally ticked off," Harry grinned as he ran a hand through the multicolored locks, "Can you imagine the look on his face?"

The Slytherin could not help but smile at the image the suggestion brought to mind, "I wonder if his head would pop off from being royally mad?"

Harry laughed at the image that came to his mind, "Would be awesome if that happened."

The two quietly made their way towards the trophy room when they were greeted by some unexpected guests.

"What're you doing here?" Draco asked.

"Trying to get you two back to bed before you get in trouble!" Hermione answered.

"I wanted to see Harry jinx Ron," Luna piped in.

"What about him?" Harry asked, pointing to Neville.

"I don't like Ron and wanted to see you beat him," the Hufflepuff answered.

"And you snuck out of your House to do so?" the green-haired Ravenclaw grinned, "That's pretty gutsy of you, Nev."

"It's almost midnight, we need to hurry up," Draco reminded, nudging Harry down the corridor.

"Do you not like 'Mione or something?" Harry asked, noting that the Slytherin stayed away from the Muggleborn.

"It's nothing..." Draco muttered.

"I'll be bugging you about this until you tell me, you know that?" Harry pointed out.

"I don't feel like answering," the Slytherin responded, cutting off the conversation.

Harry stored this away in his growing file of 'things to talk about later' in his mind.

"What're they doing here?" Ron spoke, seeing Hermione, Luna, and Neville before noticing Harry's hair.

"They're here to cheer me on, by the way, I didn't think you'd show up," Harry taunted the Gryfindor, amused at how angry Ron seemed to be upon seeing his hair, "There a way to choose who goes first, you annoying little weasel?"

The question was answered when Ron immediately shot off a spell, aimed at Harry's head but was casually dodged by a simple tilt to the side.

"_Silencio_," Harry cast, smirking as Ron's mouth opened and closed wordlessly, "Can't fight if you can't talk."

"That means Harry wins," Draco announced, surprised that Harry knew an upper year spell.

"Let's go," Harry grinned, leading his friends away when Seamus stepped in and tried to fight; Harry responded by grabbing a nearby trophy and throwing it at the speaking Gryffindor causing him to stumble back, crash into Ron, and both of them to fall into a display case with a loud sound.

"That would be our cue to leave," Neville spoke up, knowing that the noise would most likely attract Mrs. Norris, Filch or both.

As the group fled, they ran into someone whose presence was very much unwanted.

"Ickle firsties out of bed!" Peeves crowed, happy to cause them some trouble.

"Peeves, there's two Gryfindors in the trophy room, if you call Filch on them instead of us, I'll give you something in exchange," Harry quickly bargained.

"What could a firstie offer me?" the poltergeist responded, trying not to sound interested but failing.

"An exchange of pranking goods, ones that this school has yet to see," Harry grinned, knowing that Peeves would go for something that would cause mayhem and distraction, especially if no one else has used them yet, "Rat out the two in the trophy room and I'll have the house elves deliver them to you."

"Hmm...deal!" Peeves responded and the two shock hands, as best they could before they parted ways.

"That was brilliant!" Neville remarked.

"I agree, Peeves has only ever listened to the Bloody Baron and even then that's only when he's threatened," Draco chimed in.

"What can I say, I'm have a way with words," Harry grinned as they stopped to catch their breath on a staircase. After a moments pause, the group heard Fitch's yelling coming from the trophy room.

"A galleon says they lose fifty house points and get detention," Luna spoke up.

"I agree with the detention but I say they lose more points," Harry chipped in, "I'm guessing seventy-five."

Hermione sighed as Neville guessed detention and forty-five house points while Draco went with the Gryffindors losing one hundred. "This is not the time to mess around, we need to get back to our houses!"

"You do have a point," Harry muttered but before they could move, the staircase shifted positions, "I hate when these do that..."

"Let's get off here," Neville advised as the stairs stopped and believing to hear Fitch coming.

"The door's locked," Luna pointed out, tugging at the handle.

"_Alohomora_!" Hermione quickly cast on the door, pulling it open and heading inside.

"Well... that was a close one," Harry tried to joke after they went through the door.

"I think I would've preferred Filch," Neville suddenly stated.

"Why in the world are you... thinking... that..." Draco turned to look at the Hufflepuff and saw that they were not alone in the room.

"...that's a big doggie..." Harry muttered, staring up at the three-headed beast.

"That's a Cerberus," Luna pointed out, smiling while everyone else was panicking.

Hermione pushed opened the door and everyone piled out, save for Luna who was attempting to pet the creature and had to be dragged out.

"What is something like that doing in a school?!" Neville exclaimed as they hid in an unused classroom.

"It was guarding something, it was standing over a trapdoor," Hermione pointed out.

"Guarding something... could that've been Fluffy?" Harry muttered out loud, drawing the attention of the rest of the group.

"Fluffy?!"

"A while back Hagrid let slip about it after I mentioned that Jin saw him," Harry responded, "Hagrid said that he loaned it to Dumbledore to guard something but he clammed up before he could spill exactly what."

"It's irresponsible that have that in a school," Hermione spoke.

"But it's confined to the third floor and it doesn't look like it can get out easily anyways," Harry pointed out.

A moment of silence reigned as they thought over what Fluffy could be hiding before Neville spoke up.

"I think tonight has enough excitement for the year for me," the Hufflepuff muttered as he sneaked off to his house.

After a moments thought, Draco spoke, "I agree with him."

"One thing in common, other than me; you're off to a good start making friends outside of your house," Harry smiled.

For some reason, this news made the Slytherin seem uneasy as he left the group.

"Wonder what's wrong with him?" the green-haired Raven muttered.

"Most likely he's conflicted," Luna shrugged.

"About what?" Hermione responded as they quietly ducked into a secret passage that Harry led them to.

"The Malfoys are an old family, set in their ways, and all have been in Slytherin as far as I can remember," Luna answered, "He can justify being friends with Harry because he's the Boy-Who-Lived but doesn't know what to do about me, Neville, Hermione... mainly Hermione."

"What's wrong about Hermione?" Harry asked, honestly puzzled since the brunette seemed like a wonderful person to him but then again his adoptive parents harm and occasionally kill people so he might not be the best judge of character.

"Draco's a Pure Blood, they're raised to think that anyone who isn't also a Pure Blood is beneath them, especially those that weren't born into magic," Luna explained.

"So... in a way Draco was raised with ideals that he's better than everyone else because of his blood?" Harry clarified.

"That's about right," Luna responded.

"How do you feel about this?" Harry questioned Hermione.

"It doesn't matter to me," the brunette answered.

"Eh, forget Pure Blood crap, you're a good friend to me and that's all I care about! If it'll cheer you up, I'll make you something special in the kitchens!" Harry promised.

"Sounds good to me," Hermione smiled before asking, "By the way Harry, where did you get that spell you used on Ron? It's not in our course books."

"It's in one of the books for fifth year, I think," Harry grinned, "There's a reason I'm a Raven, I like to accumulate knowledge since you never know when you might need something, one of my uncles taught me that."

"How many uncles do you have?" Luna inquired.

"Four or five I guess, I kind of lose track when we're running everywhere... the uncle I just mentioned would love seeing the Wizarding World if only to try and figure everything out," Harry smiled to himself as he envisioned his Uncle Riddles pouring over the numerous books from Diagon Alley with a childish glee.


	19. Broken Reflections

It only took me a month this time!

Harry "Congrats, the last time you did that was either the previous story or at the very beginning of this one!"

Shut it, Hyena boy. One more thing, I'm cleaning up the previous story to smoothen out the read a bit.

* * *

"Snow here is nicer than back home," Harry offhandedly commented, staring out a window to gaze upon the white blanketing the ground outside.

"Why's that?" Hermione asked, hoping that Harry might let slip a clue of his home location.

"Back home the only time you see snow that clean is when it's just fallen or in places where there's not a lot of traffic or people going by. Usually, if there's no more snow what's there turns into a gray slush," Harry responded, wondering if Hermione would get the clue of it being a city out of that. Seeing the slight smile on the brunette's face confirmed that she had gotten the clue. 'Wonder if I'm making this too easy?'

_[Not yet, but you're getting close,]_ Jin chimed in from his cozy spot in front of the fireplace.

"Very funny," Harry sarcastically remarked, playfully tossing a ball at the hyena, "Fetch!"

_[No, I'm comfy here,]_ Jin declined, swatting the object away.

"Lazy," Harry muttered.

"Let's grab some lunch," Luna suddenly spoke up.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Harry agreed, setting his work aside and closing his book, "You coming, 'Mione?"

"In a few minutes, I want to finish up my homework," Hermione responded.

"That assignment isn't due until after the break," Harry pointed out.

"I don't want to leave it to the last minute," Hermione reasoned, scanning the pages of her book.

"You need to loosen up a bit," the faintly green haired Raven remarked before he and Luna left for the Great Hall.

"Nice decorations," Harry muttered as he entered the Great Hall, taking in the decorations of holly, mistletoe and the trees were covered with tiny icicles or numerous candles.

"How do you like 'em?" Hagrid asked, approaching the two Ravens.

"I like it but I worry that the mistletoe might have Nargles," Luna answered.

Harry shrugged at the giant's questioning gaze, "If you're that worried, Alba, just stay away from them. By the way, Hagrid, I can't take Jin home with me over the break, you mind watching over him?"

"Sure, could use a bit more company, Fang an' me, but why aren't you taking him?" Hagrid responded.

"When I told him we'd have to travel by floo to go home and then come back in the span of a few weeks, he refused to leave," Harry shrugged, "He said the last time we did that he nearly puked... I'm not sure if a hyena can actually throw up but I don't want to take that chance."

Hagrid laughed, "How many days you two have left until yer holidays?"

"Two if you don't include today," Hermione answered, walking up and turning to her friends, "After lunch we should head to the library."

"You lot getting ahead on yer work?" the giant asked.

"Hermione's all done with hers, I'm taking a laid back route... I have no clue about Luna," Harry shrugged, "We're actually trying to look up Nicolas Flamel. I told them what you blabbed to me after we ran into Fluffy a little while back."

Hagrid looked shocked, "I thought I told you, Harry at least, not to go meddlin' in things yer not involved in. Jus' drop it!"

"Sorry Hagrid, when I find a good puzzle I'm driven to solve it," Harry grinned, "You can blame my riddle loving uncle for that."

After quick lunch followed by a search of the library, which turned up nothing yet again, Harry trekked back to his House to double check to see if he had left anything under the bed before he left. Upon entering the dorms, he was met with an anxious Jin.

_[Brother, one of those kitchen things put something on your bed while you were gone,] _Jin informed as he watched his owner/brother approached, _[It didn't smell dangerous or bad but be careful.]_

"Thanks," Harry muttered, scratching the hyena's ears and giving him some food he had brought back before carefully approaching the item in question. After a few minutes of poking the item he decided to unwrap it, revealing a grayish-silver colored length of cloth, "What in the world is this?"

"Mind letting me see?" Luna spoke up and upon seeing the questioning look on Harry's face answered his thought question, "Jin got me, he seemed worried about something."

"He said a house elf left this so it shouldn't be bad," Harry held up the cloth for Luna to examine.

Luna stared at the fabric, tilting her head one way then the other before requesting, "Put it on."

"If I can't remove this, I'll prank you so badly..." Harry muttered, draping the fabric around his shoulders and letting it fall over his body.

"It's an invisibility cloak," the blonde smiled, "Those are very rare."

Harry looked in a mirror and saw that it appeared as if he was simply a floating head. Grinning, he announced, "This will give me so much pranking fun!"

"There's a note," Luna smiled at his reaction before holding up a scrap of paper to the disembodied head to read.

_Your father left this in my possession before he died._

_It is time for it to be returned to you._

_I hope you find __**good**__ use for it._

_Have a merry Christmas._

'Like I'm going to use something as awesome as this for good,' Harry rolled his eyes at the emphasis in the note before holding out to Jin, "Think you can find out who sent it?"

The hyena sniffed the note before letting out something similar to a sneeze and batting the paper away, _[Yuck, I don't like the smell!]_

Harry laughed, "You can't figure out who's it from?"

_[The smell I don't like has the scent of those Kitchen Things on top but I get enough that it hurts my nose,]_ Jin shook his head, trying to clear the smell out, _[But I think the smell is lemons... I think that it's that Old Man.]_

"Old Man... Dumbledore?" Harry guessed.

_[I don't care what his name is, but I hate his smell!]_

"What's wrong with him?" Luna asked, rubbing the creature's neck in an effort of a comforting gesture.

"Bad smell," Harry simply explained, rubbing Jin's head, "You want to go down to the kitchens to get the smell out?"

_[I like doing that anytime,]_ Jin responded, nudging the boy's hand before muttering mainly to himself, _[Flower's pettings are nice...]_

"Ungrateful canine," Harry muttered.

_[I'm part of the cat family, remember?]_ the hyena retorted.

"I was trying to insult you."

–HJH–

After dinner and most of the his roommates had gone to sleep, Harry stared up at the roof of his bed, thinking about the possibilities for the cloak now in his possession. His thoughts drifted to the pranking potential from earlier but it now wandered to sneaking into places where he did not belong, the Restricted Section of the library for one. The knowledge there was dangerous and it called out to him to read the off limit tomes.

Reaching under his bed, Harry pulled out the cloak and wrapped it around himself and, giving Jin a soft pat on the head, left.

Slowly opening the door to the library, to make sure it did not make a sound, the slightly unhinged Raven entered the darkened room and looked around to make sure that he was truly alone before searching for something to light his way. Eventually finding an unlit lamp he patted his pockets for something to light it before mentally smacking himself and snapping his fingers to generate a small, green flame and lit it. Lifting the lamp, the sight of it floating in midair would have be an interesting thing to see for anyone, Harry cast the light over the shelves of books.

"This is some pretty creepy stuff..." Harry muttered as he ran his fingers across the spines of several books, tilting his head slightly to read their names. Choosing one at random, he pulled it from the shelf and opened it only to promptly drop it as it let out and ear piercing scream.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Harry picked up the book and quickly shoved it back into its spot, making sure that the invisibility cloak covered him completely he blew out the light in the lamp before quickly retreating from the library, ducking into an alcove to avoid running into Filch as he came past.

Watching the grizzled caretaker go in, Harry quickly fled down the corridor in the opposite direction to put as much distance as possible between them. He eventually stopped to catch his breath and to check his surroundings, spotting a suit of armor and checked to see if it bore any of his miniscule marks of graffiti that he had done within the first few months of school. He quickly figured out that he had to be a few floors above the library by now and decided that now would be a good time to go to bed.

"You asked me to come directly to you if anyone was wandering around the castle at night Professor; someone was in the library: Restricted Section," Filch's greasy voice drawled.

'Crap!' Harry thought, pressing his back to the wall and looking for a way to escape when he heard the voice of the other person in the conversation.

"The Restricted Section? They can't have gotten far, we'll catch them," Snape replied.

Glancing around frantically, Harry saw a door ajar just slightly and made his way over and though it, holding his breath and sucking in his stomach to make sure he slipped though without touching the door and alerting the two to his presence.

Eventually, the two walked past the room and Harry let out a silent sight of relief, a bit mad at himself that his skills at sneaking around had gotten rusty and that he had almost gotten caught.

Deciding it would be best to lay low for a little while longer before heading back to his House, Harry looked around and figured he must be in an unused classroom if the desks and chairs stacked in a corner of the room was any indicator. He then noticed, propped up against a wall, was a very large mirror that someone seemed to have put there to get it out of the way.

Wondering why someone would store something so random in an out of the way place, Harry approached the object and what he saw reflected back confused him; he turned around quickly to see if what he saw was actually in the room with him, but he was alone. In the mirror was a man and woman; the man had messy black hair, brown eyes, and wore glasses while the woman had red hair and green eyes.

Harry glanced at the top of the mirror and read: _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._ "What the heck does that mean?" Harry muttered out loud, "Is it a riddle or a different language? The letters are English at least but…" he glanced at the first word before digging out a piece of scrap paper out of his pocket and an extra pen. "Erised, erised… wait a minute," he quickly wrote the word backwards and came up with something recognizable, "Desire? …is the whole sentence backwards?" he quickly wrote down the rest of the sentence, pointedly ignoring the people staring back at him, "What the heck does it mean now?" _Ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desire_ was now written in front of him.

Harry tapped the pen against he paper idly before covering up most of the sentence allowing him to see a part of it could now be read as _not your_. He quickly drew lines separating the words in the sentence to make something coherent: _I|show no t|yo ur|fac e|bu t|yo ur|he arts desire_. "What is this supposed to mean? …if it's supposed to show what I want, this mirror should show my family, not whoever these people are."

Harry pressed his hands against the mirror and glared at the people reflected, even though they kept smiling at him, "Cut that out, you're not anyone I know, so buzz off!" He growled deeply in annoyance and anger, not noticing that his magic was flowing out of him and was interacting with the mirror. The image of the two people eventually faded away to be replaced with more familiar, and colorful, figures. He gave a wide smile as he saw that he was surrounded by his true family: Joker and Harley were right next to him, Poison Ivy next to Harley, Riddler, Catwoman, and Two-Face on one side, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, and Penguin on the other, but what was surprising was the addition of several new figures; Luna, Hermione, Fred and George, Neville and Draco were right next to him, not paying attention to the costumed villains around them, seemingly accepting both sides of who he was.

'I wish that could be true...' Harry though, staring at the image and feeling a slight pang of regret that he could not be completely truthful with any of his friends. 'I doubt that anyone would understand my situation, but I wonder what they'd think of this?'

–HJH–

"Alba... Alba, wake up," Harry whispered, nudging the blonde as she slept.

"I've had enough pudding today..." Luna muttered, almost causing Harry to laugh out loud at the nonsensical phrase.

"C'mon, I need to show you something!" Harry nudged the girl again, finally waking her up.

"Hello, Harry, why're you visiting me in the middle of the night?" Luna sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"I need to show you something cool," Harry responded, pulling his friend out of bed and noticing something, "You wear your shoes to bed?"

"Just in case I sleepwalk," Luna smiled before glancing over at Hermione, "Are we going to wake her up too?"

"I don't think she'd like us all being out of bed, so no," Harry shrugged as he slid down the slide that had replaced the steps when he had ascended earlier and waited at the bottom for Luna.

"How did you get up here in the first place?" Luna asked, as Harry helped her up.

"When the steps changed, I jumped from wall to wall, like a ninja!" Harry grinned but dropped the smile when he realized that Luna most likely did not know what a ninja was, "I'll explain what that is later, what I want to show you is really cool."

Harry eventually led Luna to the room the held the strange mirror, after a few wrong turns along the way, including one that inexplicably led them to the astronomy tower. He pulled the invisibility cloak off and placed Luna directly in front of the mirror and stepped back slightly.

"What do you see, Alba?" Harry asked as he watched Luna press her hands to the mirror, smiling.

"I see my mom... she's beautiful," Luna murmured

"If she's anything like you, I bet she is," Harry smiled, "which I could see what you do... this mirror only shows stuff that's important to the person I guess."

"How did you find this thing?" she asked.

"I hid in here after doing something I wasn't supposed to," Harry tried to joke but his heart was not into it when he noticed that he friend seemed sad, "Are you okay?"

"I think so... it's nice to see her sort of alive even though it's not real," Luna responded, "Thank you for showing me this."

"Think of it as an early Christmas gift," Harry smiled.

"What do you see?"

Harry stepped in front of Luna and lightly touched the glass, "I'm surrounded by my family and all my friends... I guess I'm really homesick."

"Good think you're going home, then," Luna reminded.

"Which is why you two should be in bed," a voice spoke up.

The two Ravens turned around and Harry instinctively stood between Luna and the other person, "Who's there?"

"Calm yourself," the person revealed themselves to be Dumbledore, "I was just checking on two students that are up after hours... or up very early depending on how you look at it."

Harry still stood defensive against the Headmaster, he still had not forgiven the near erasure of his memories and that the old man had not received any punishment for it. "Are we in trouble?"

"No, just a word about the mirror," Dumbledore advised, "Do you know what it truly does?"

"It shows us what we really want more than anything?" Luna offered, touching the reflective surface lightly.

"Yes and no, it simply shows a person nothing more or less than their deepest, most desperate desires of their heart," the Headmaster explained, "For Luna, it is the wish to see her mother and for you-"

"You say another word about me, I'll break your nose," Harry quickly cut off, scared about Luna finding out about his family and that she would not be his friend if she knew.

The old man held up his hands slightly in a gesture of peace, "Be careful, this mirror does not give either knowledge or truth. Many men have wasted away in front of it, transfixed by what it shows or have been driven mad by the thought that what they've seen being fake or impossible to achieve and despairing.

"The mirror will be moved soon, I suggest that neither of you go looking for it. Remember, it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. Now, why don't you two put that cloak on and head back to bed?"

"Why did you give me the cloak?" Harry asked, suddenly remembering that the old man in front of him had given him the item.

Dumbledore smiled, "It was your father's possession so it seems only right to return it to you."

'Sounds like he's trying to bribe me...' Harry thought.

"Professor Dumbledore... can I ask you something?" Luna spoke up.

"You have just done so but you may ask me one more thing," the Headmaster smiled.

"What do you see when you look into the mirror?"

"I? I see myself with a pair of thick, woolen socks," Dumbledore answered, "You can't have too many socks but people insist on buying me books. I don't think I'll be getting single pair this year, yet again."

After the Headmaster left, Harry turned to his fellow Ravenclaw and paused before quite honestly saying, "Who the heck wants _socks_ for Christmas?"


End file.
